application whitelisting

Application whitelisting is a computer administration practice used to prevent unauthorized programs from running. The purpose is primarily to protect computers and networks from harmful applications, and, to a lesser extent, to prevent unnecessary demand for resources. The whitelist is a simple list of applications that have been granted permission by the user or an administrator. When an application tries to execute, it is automatically checked against the list and, if found, allowed to run. An integrity check measure, such as hashing, is generally added to ensure that the application is in fact the authorized program and not a malicious or otherwise inappropriate one with the same name.