Safety and management of computing environments that may support unsafe components

A method for providing one or more safe executable components in a safe computing environment, said method comprising:

• (a) verifying integrity of a computing isolating/guarding component;
• and
• (b) initiating said computing isolating/guarding component as a safe computing isolating/guarding component when said verifying (a) successfully verifies said integrity of said safe computing isolating/guarding component, wherein said safe computing isolating/guarding component is operable to effectively isolate and/or guard at least one virtual computing environment from one or more other virtual computing environments;
• (c) verifying integrity of at least one virtual computing environment;
• (d) initiating said at least one virtual computing environment as a safe virtual computing environment when said verifying (c) successfully verifies said integrity of said least one virtual computing environment;
• (e) verifying integrity of one or more executable computing components for execution in said safe virtual computing environment when said verifying (c) successfully verifies said integrity of said least one virtual computing environment;
• and
• (f) initiating said one or more executable computing components as one or more safe executable computing components in said safe virtual computing environment when said verifying (e) successfully verifies said integrity of said one or more executable computing components, wherein said one or more safe executable computing components are effectively isolated and/or guarded from said one or more unsafe computing environments by said safe computing isolating/guarding component.

A device, wherein said device is operable to:

• (a) verify integrity of computer program code for a virtual machine monitor before allowing said virtual machine monitor to be effectively initiated on said device;
• allow execution of said virtual machine monitor on said device as a trusted virtual machine monitor only when said verifying (a) successfully verifies said integrity of said computer program code for said virtual machine monitor;
• (b) verify integrity of computer program code for a first virtual machine only when said verifying (a) successfully verifies said integrity of said computer program code for said virtual machine monitor;
• allow execution of said computer program code for said first virtual machine on said device as a trusted virtual machine only when verifying successfully verifies said integrity of said first virtual machine;
• (c) verify integrity of computer program code for one or more executable computing components for execution in said trusted virtual machine;
• and
• allow execution of said computer program code for said one or more executable computing components as one or more trusted executable computing components in said trusted virtual machine only when said verifying (c) successfully verifies said integrity of said one or more executable computing components.

A method of initiating one or more computing environments that are not known or not believed to be safe for a device, said method comprising:

• initiating a safe computing isolating/guarding component operable to effectively isolate and/or guard a safe computing environment from one or more unsafe computing environments said device;
• initiating a safe computing environment that can access said safe computing isolating/guarding component;
• initiate one or more unsafe computing environments that can be accessed by the safe computing isolating/guarding component but cannot directly access said safe computing environment, thereby securing said safe computing environment from said one or more unsafe computing environments;
• and
• initiate at least one safe executable component in said safe computing environment, wherein said at least one safe executable component is operable to effectively manage said one or more unsafe computing environments via said safe computing isolating/guarding component while being isolated by said safe computing isolating/guarding component from said one or more unsafe computing environments.

A computer readable medium including computer program code for providing one or more safe executable components in a safe computing environment, wherein said computer readable medium includes:

• computer program code for verifying integrity of a computing isolating/guarding component;
• computer program code for initiating said computing isolating/guarding component as a safe computing isolating/guarding component, wherein said safe computing isolating/guarding component is operable to effectively isolate and/or guard at least one virtual computing environment from one or more other virtual computing environments;
• computer program code for verifying integrity of at least one virtual computing environment;
• computer program code for initiating said at least one virtual computing environment as a safe virtual computing environment;
• computer program code for verifying integrity of one or more executable computing components for execution in said safe virtual computing environment;
• and
• computer program code for initiating said one or more executable computing components as one or more safe executable computing components in said safe virtual computing environment.