Malware Detection and Prevention by Monitoring and Modifying a Hardware Pipeline

A mobile computing device, comprising:

• a memory;
• a hardware pipeline coupled to the memory;
• a control unit coupled to the hardware pipeline and the memory and configured to perform operations comprising:
• accessing instructions currently queued in the hardware pipeline (“queued instructions”);
• and
• preventing execution of the queued instructions in response to a determination by a processor that executing the queued instructions could result in a malicious configuration;
• and
• a processor coupled to the memory and the control unit, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations comprising determining whether executing the queued instructions could result in a malicious configuration.

A mobile computing device, comprising:

• means for accessing instructions currently queued in a hardware pipeline (“queued instructions”);
• means for determining whether executing the queued instructions could result in a malicious configuration;
• and
• means for preventing execution of the queued instructions in response to determining that executing the queued instructions could result in a malicious configuration.

A non-transitory processor-readable storage medium having stored thereon processor-executable instructions, wherein:

• the stored processor-executable instructions are configured to cause a mobile device processor to perform operations comprising:
• accessing instructions currently queued in a hardware pipeline (“queued instructions”);
• and
• determining whether executing the queued instructions could result in a malicious configuration, and
• the stored processor-executable instructions are configured to cause a control unit to perform operations comprising preventing execution of the queued instructions in response to a determination by the mobile device processor that executing the queued instructions could result in a malicious configuration.