Enforcing Executing-Implies-Verified with the Integrity-Aware Processor

Malware often injects and executes new code to infect hypervisors, OSs and applications. Such malware infections can be prevented by checking all code against a whitelist before permitting it to execute. The eXecuting Implies Verified Enforcer (XIVE) is a distributed system in which a kernel on each target system consults a server called the approver to verify code on-demand. We propose a new hardware mechanism to isolate the XIVE kernel from the target host. The Integrity-Aware Processor (IAP) that embodies this mechanism is based on a SPARC soft-core for an FPGA and provides high performance, high compatibility with target systems and flexible invocation options to ensure visibility into the target system. This facilitates the development of a very small trusted computing base.