Patent ID: 8813233

Claim:
A method for managing virtual machine instance types, comprising: obtaining, by a machine image inspection component, a request for evaluation of a machine image on an instance of a virtual machine; selecting, by the machine image inspection component, at least one machine image inspection executable code for evaluating the requested machine image without causing the execution of the requested machine image, wherein the at least one machine image inspection executable code includes an operating system kernel configured to evaluate machine images for malicious executable code; causing, by the machine image inspection component, instantiation of a virtual machine, wherein the virtual machine is configured to execute the at least one machine image inspection executable code including the operating system kernel; provisioning the instantiated virtual machine with the requested machine image without executing the requested machine image; receiving results of an inspection of the requested machine image by the least one machine image inspection executable code; and causing, by the machine image inspection component, the initiation of a mitigation technique if the results of the evaluation of the machine image indicate a presence of malicious executable code.