QEMU-based framework for non-intrusive virtual machine instrumentation and introspection

Abstract

This paper presents the framework based on the emulator QEMU. Our framework provides set of multi-platform analysis tools for the virtual machines and mechanism for creating instrumentation and analysis tools. Our framework is based on a lightweight approach to dynamic analysis of binary code executed in virtual machines. This approach is non-intrusive and provides system-wide analysis capabilities. It does not require loading any guest agents and source code of the OS. Therefore it may be applied to ROM-based guest systems and enables using of record/replay of the system execution. We use application binary interface (ABI) of the platform to be analyzed for creating introspection tools. These tools recover the part of kernel-level information related to the system calls executed on the guest machine.