VIBES: Turning One PC Into Three

Bringing virtualization to tighten end user security

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

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Information grows at a rapid pace and so do malicious attacks. Security has therefore become the mission critical aspect of almost everything. Till now, consolidation of resources in a data center has been seen as the main advantage of virtualization. But now, the ability to isolate virtual machines running on a physical machine has given opportunities for enhancing security at end points.

The Concept
Security vendor Symantec has come up with a new virtual machine technology to protect Web surfers from online attacks. VIBES, stands for virtualization based end point security, which works on the concept of three virtual machines for a single user handling operations of different security levels. The software does so by automatically recognizing the security level of different operations and then seamlessly switching between different virtual machines in a way which is transparent to both user and the website. The advantage being even in the case of an attack, it prevents malware from permanently damaging a user machine and at the same time protects sensitive information from theft.

How it works?
VIBES basically works in three operating modes. First being Playground which is used for execution of suspicious active content. Second is the User mode which takes care of day to day activities. And last but not the least is the Trusted mode which is responsible for entering sensitive information, for example, when it detects a SSL protocol for safe online transactions. By doing so, it also improves browser security by enabling users to seamlessly use different virtual execution environments to carry out different Web transactions.

While accessing a Web site using https, the protocol for encrypting sensitive data transactions, the VIBES system moves the operation again to a Trusted Virtual Machine that provides a higher level of security. All other activities are carried out in a mode that offers the level of security offered by the antivirus and other security software installed on the computer. The isolation of these activities are all invisible to the end user.

Switching between the three virtual machines is transparent for both the user and the website.

Because Vibes works on virtual machines. Even if a user ends up accidentally installing a malicious software on the PC, the virus can't access anything important and also disappears when the virtual machine session is closed.

What lies ahead?
Being developed by Symantec Research Labs, VIBES might not make it to being a full fledged product, but learnings from this prototype might be seen in other future products. The current prototype supports Linux and VMware, but is wisely capable of supporting other virtualization products and operating systems. Data centers have already been witnessing the adoption of virtualization technology, where it is being used to consolidate server applications onto fewer machines. But now, companies like Symantec are looking at ways to use the technology on the desktop as well as the data center, and in so-called cloud computing platforms.

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