Bromium

Bromium, Inc.

Company type	Private
Industry	Computer Software
Founded	2010 (2010)
Founders	Gaurav Banga Simon Crosby Ian Pratt
Headquarters	Cupertino, California , United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Ian Pratt (Co-founder and President)
Parent	HP
Website	www8.hp.com/us/en/solutions/sure-click-enterprise.html

Bromium, Inc. was a venture capital–funded startup headquartered in Cupertino, California that focused on virtualization solutions designed to mitigate endpoint security risks such as malware, viruses, and adware. In September 2019, the company became part of HP Inc. through acquisition.

History

Established in 2010 by Gaurav Banga and later joined by former executives from Citrix and XenSource, Simon Crosby and Ian Pratt, Bromium raised a total of $75.7 million over three financing rounds by 2013. Notable investors included Andreessen Horowitz, Ignition Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Highland Capital Partners, Intel Capital, and Meritech Capital Partners. The funding rounds brought in $9.2 million, $26.5 million, and $40 million respectively.

The company's initial product, version 1.0, was introduced in September 2012, securing early adoption from clients like the New York Stock Exchange and ADP.

In 2014, Bromium revealed techniques capable of circumventing Microsoft's Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET), exposing weaknesses in return-oriented programming (ROP) defenses. By 2017, Bromium collaborated with HP to embed its micro-virtualization technology into HP laptops, beginning with the HP EliteBook x360 series.

HP completed its acquisition of Bromium in September 2019 for an undisclosed sum, intending to strengthen its PC security portfolio using Bromium’s virtualization innovations.

Technology

Bromium’s micro-virtualization approach safeguards endpoints from malicious code execution triggered by user actions such as clicking unsafe web links, opening email attachments, or downloading files. This protection is achieved through hardware-enforced isolation.

The technology operates via a late-loading hypervisor known as the Microvisor, which is built upon the open-source Xen hypervisor. It generates lightweight virtual machines called micro-VMs that are task-specific. Unlike conventional full operating system virtual machines, these micro-VMs utilize advanced virtualization features present in modern desktop processors to isolate individual processes like launching applications or handling downloads. Each micro-VM is discarded after completing its task, effectively removing any embedded malware.

The Microvisor upholds the principle of least privilege by segregating applications and operating system functions into distinct micro-VMs that are prevented from interacting with each other, the host environment, or network resources. It employs x86 virtualization to implement mandatory access control (MAC) policies whenever micro-VMs access sensitive Windows services. This hardware-based segmentation enables secure coexistence of trusted and untrusted operations on a single device.

Due to its streamlined architecture, the Microvisor presents a minimal attack surface that makes exploitation both expensive and challenging. In penetration tests conducted by NSS Labs, Bromium achieved a flawless rating in blocking malware infections and sophisticated intrusion attempts.

Products

The initial release, vSentry 1.0, was compatible with Windows 7 and required an Intel processor featuring VT-x and EPT capabilities. With the June 2013 launch of vSentry 2.0, enhanced safeguards were introduced specifically for users handling document exchanges. In 2014, Bromium unveiled Live Attack Visualization and Analysis (LAVA), a technology designed to facilitate the real-time collection of attack information within micro-VM environments while adhering to the Structured Threat Information eXpression (STIX) format. The December 2015 debut of vSentry 3.0 brought in behavioral analysis functionalities for executable files. This product line is currently offered under the name HP SureClick.

See also

• Qubes OS