METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THE SECURE PROCESSING OF CONFIDENTIAL CONTENT WITHIN A VIRTUAL MACHINE OF A PROCESSOR

A secure virtual machine system, method, and computer program product implemented on a processor are provided for processing a third party's content for output. At least one processor is provided. Additionally, at least one secure virtual machine implemented on the processor is provided for interpreting a second party's program that processes and outputs a third party's content. The virtual machine system abstracts the underlying processor hardware allowing implementation variations across products to execute the same program identically. Furthermore, the scope of the programmable operations, the types of input & output variables, and execution of programs within the processor, is deliberately constrained within the virtual machine environment, in order to mitigate potential security leaks by programs, and to ensure confidentiality of second party's secrets, and third party's content as managed by the second party's program.