Web-Based Malware Mitigation with a Virtualized Web-Browser: A Comparison Study

摘要

In this paper, we present a virtualization approach that creates a single purpose virtual appliance running a web browser and forwarding the activities to the host system, which is followed by a comparison study testing the viability of a virtualized and isolated web browser upon the following metrics: performance, security, and usability. Virtualization consists of implementing an operating system with software on a host system, which allows a computer to run multiple operating systems and share resources between them. Aside from a few select cases with Apple's Classic Environment/ VMWare Fusion or Microsoft's Windows XP Mode, it is uncommon to see this power leveraged in the consumer world. Furthermore, using virtual machines as a defense against malware is even rarer, and is normally limited to computer security research, as it requires significant computing power. Currently, most work done on computers revolves around a web browser; browsing the internet, collaborative document creation, and other business is done through a web browser. Encapsulating that web browser with a scaled-down virtual machine would provide advanced protection with modest overhead for all those services. Most malware on computers today is introduced through the web, and as such, it makes sense to isolate the web browser with virtualization. As such, we propose a virtual appliance designed to accomplish that goal.