System and method for virtualization-assisted debugging

A method comprising:

• executing a specially configured hypervisor (hypervisor) upon a computer system which manages execution upon the computer system of a guest application within a virtual machine (VM);
• establishing an occurrence of a virtualization event relating to the VM with a virtual event handler forming part of the hypervisor during execution of the guest application;
• determining whether the occurrence of the virtualization event relates to a normal virtualization event associated with the guest application or whether the occurrence of the virtualization event corresponds to a virtualization event to be handled by debugging program code (debugger);
• upon a determination that the occurrence of the virtualization event corresponds to a normal virtualization event handling the virtualization event with the hypervisor or a virtual machine monitor of the VM;
• and
• upon a determination that the occurrence of the virtualization event corresponds to a virtualization event to be handled by the debugger handling the virtualization event with the debugger;
• wherein
• the virtual event handler exploits nested page table (NPT) faults;
• and
• the virtual event handler clears or changes access rights to one or more entries within an NPT associated with the VM to establish a control point to suspend execution of the guest application to trigger a VM-EXIT and upon a VM-ENTRY back into the guest application the virtual event handler restores the cleared or changed access rights to one or more entries within an NPT.