Resource utilization-based malicious task detection in an on-demand code execution system

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for detecting and preventing execution of malware on an on-demand code execution system. An on-demand code execution system may execute user-submitted code on virtual machine instances, which may be provisioned with various computing resources (memory, storage, processors, network bandwidth, etc.). These resources may be utilized in varying amounts or at varying rates during execution of the user-submitted code. The user-submitted code may also be unavailable for inspection for security or other reasons. A malware detection system may thus identify user-submitted code that corresponds to malware by monitoring resource utilization during execution of the code and generating a resource utilization signature, which enables comparison between the signature of the user-submitted code and resource utilization signatures of codes previously identified as malware. The malware detection system may then take actions such as notifying the user who requested execution or preventing execution of the user-submitted code.