Bitdefender Browser Isolation aims to create a secure browser environment through the use of a virtualized browser running on Citrix Virtual Apps servers.

One of the more secure ways to peruse the internet is via a system that has been air-gaped between end-user systems and the internet itself. Security companies are starting to create this air-gap through the use of virtualised browsers, a web browser that is isolated from the computers operating system.

Recently Mozilla released an extension for its Firefox browser that allows users to access Facebook via a Container extension. This extension makes it difficult for Facebook to track user activity across the internet as it isolates the user identity online.

The Bitdefender Browser Isolation aims to mitigate attacks by monitoring memory for threat actor techniques such as buffer overflows, code injection, and heap spray and file-less attacks.

Gavin Hill, Vice President, Datacenter and Network Security Products at Bitdefender commented in a release that: “If users find their browser isolation technology cumbersome, it could be disabled or replaced with a less secure solution. The key to addressing this is deployment of a solution with a long history in virtualized browser like the one from Citrix.”

“It’s critical that the needed air-gap between systems and internet resources is established, while providing users with the speed and access they require.”

Bitdefender Browser Isolation

The Bitdefender Browser Isolation programme works off the back of Citrix’s Hypervisor, which is a virtualization management platform that runs application, desktop and server virtualization infrastructures.

As part of its offering Citrix previously introduced an API into its XenServer hypervisor platform. This API grants users an insight into the raw memory stack of every virtual machine running on the hypervisor platform.

Part of Bitdefender’s security offering uses this insight into a stacks raw memory to detect suspicious activity. Bitdefender Hypervisor Introspection (HVI) can be instructed to insert cleaning tools into live virtual machines. HVI is not an endpoint replacement, but is rather an extra security layer at the core of the system memory.

The Bitdefender Browser Isolation uses these security techniques to monitor the raw memory running in a virtualised system, including browser applications.

“The security requires no footprint in protected Virtual Apps servers to identify attack techniques used to exploit both known and unknown vulnerabilities in web browsers and their associated plugins,” Bitdefender notes.

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