Patterns for building dependable systems with trusted bases

We propose a set of patterns for structuring a system to be dependable by design. The key idea is to localize the system's most critical requirements into small, reliable parts called trusted bases. We describe two instances of trusted bases: (1) the end-to-end check, which localizes the correctness checking of a computation to end points of a system, and (2) the trusted kernel, which ensures the safety of a set of resources with a small core of a system.Northrop Grumman Cybersecurity Research ConsortiumNational Science Foundation (U.S.) (Deep and Scalable Analysis of Software Grant 0541183)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (CRI: CRD - Development of Alloy Technology and Materials Grant 0707612

Time Protection: the Missing OS Abstraction

Timing channels enable data leakage that threatens the security of computer systems, from cloud platforms to smartphones and browsers executing untrusted third-party code. Preventing unauthorised information flow is a core duty of the operating system, however, present OSes are unable to prevent timing channels. We argue that OSes must provide time protection in addition to the established memory protection. We examine the requirements of time protection, present a design and its implementation in the seL4 microkernel, and evaluate its efficacy as well as performance overhead on Arm and x86 processors

Towards a formally verified microkernel using the VCC verifier

In this thesis we present the design by contract modular approach to formal verification of an industrial real-time microkernel which was not designed with formal verification in mind. The microkernel module targeted is a particular interrupt manager of xLuna Real Time Operating System (RTOS) for embedded systems built by Critical Software S.A. The annotations were verified automatically using the Microsoft Research Verified C Compiler (VCC) tool to reason about concurrency and safety properties of xLuna kernel. The specifications are based in Hoare-style pre- and post-conditions inlined with the real code. xLuna is a microkernel based on the RTEMS Real-Time Operating System. xLuna extends RTEMS for run a GNU/Linux Operating System, providing a runtime multitasking environment for real-time (RTEMS) and non-real-time (Linux) applications. xLuna runs in a preemptable and concurrent environment. Therefore, we use VCC for reasoning about concurrent executions and some functional and safety properties of xLuna microkernel. VCC is an automated verifier for concurrent C programs that is being developed by Microsoft Research, Redmond, USA and European Microsoft Innovation Center (EMIC), Aachen, Germany. VCC is being built and used for operating system verification which makes it suitable for our verification work. Specifications were added to xLuna code following a modular approach to the verification of a specific microkernel module, namely the Interrupt Request (IRQ) module. The Verified C Compiler (VCC) annotations added cover approximately 80% of the IRQ manager C code (the remaining 20% of the code are relative to auxiliary functions outside the scope of our verification work). All the annotations were automatically verified and proven to be correct

Maruchi OS kankyo o shiensuru sofutowea oyobi hadowea kino no teian

制度:新 ; 報告番号:甲3534号 ; 学位の種類:博士(工学) ; 授与年月日:2012/2/25 ; 早大学位記番号:新587

Evaluation of MILS and reduced kernel security concepts for SCADA remote terminal units.

The purpose of this project is to study the benefits that the Multiple Independent Levels of Security (MILS) approach can provide to Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) remote terminal units. This is accomplished through a heavy focus on MILS concepts such as resource separation, verification, and kernel minimization and reduction. Two architectures are leveraged to study the application of reduced kernel concepts for a remote terminal unit (RTU). The first is the LynxOS embedded operating system, which is used to create a bootable image of a working RTU. The second is the Pistachio microkernel, the features and development environment of which are analyzed and catalogued to provide the basis for a future RTU. A survey of recent literature is included that focuses on the state of SCADA security, the MILS standard, and microkernel research. The design methodology for a MILS compliant RTU is outlined, including a benefit analysis of applying MILS in an industrial network setting. Also included are analyses of the concepts of MILS which are relevant to the design and how LynxOS and Pistachio can be used to study some of these concepts. A section detailing the prototyping of RTUs on LynxOS and Pistachio is also included, followed by an initial security and performance analysis for both systems

Operating System Support for Redundant Multithreading

Failing hardware is a fact and trends in microprocessor design indicate that the fraction of hardware suffering from permanent and transient faults will continue to increase in future chip generations. Researchers proposed various solutions to this issue with different downsides: Specialized hardware components make hardware more expensive in production and consume additional energy at runtime. Fault-tolerant algorithms and libraries enforce specific programming models on the developer. Compiler-based fault tolerance requires the source code for all applications to be available for recompilation. In this thesis I present ASTEROID, an operating system architecture that integrates applications with different reliability needs. ASTEROID is built on top of the L4/Fiasco.OC microkernel and extends the system with Romain, an operating system service that transparently replicates user applications. Romain supports single- and multi-threaded applications without requiring access to the application's source code. Romain replicates applications and their resources completely and thereby does not rely on hardware extensions, such as ECC-protected memory. In my thesis I describe how to efficiently implement replication as a form of redundant multithreading in software. I develop mechanisms to manage replica resources and to make multi-threaded programs behave deterministically for replication. I furthermore present an approach to handle applications that use shared-memory channels with other programs. My evaluation shows that Romain provides 100% error detection and more than 99.6% error correction for single-bit flips in memory and general-purpose registers. At the same time, Romain's execution time overhead is below 14% for single-threaded applications running in triple-modular redundant mode. The last part of my thesis acknowledges that software-implemented fault tolerance methods often rely on the correct functioning of a certain set of hardware and software components, the Reliable Computing Base (RCB). I introduce the concept of the RCB and discuss what constitutes the RCB of the ASTEROID system and other fault tolerance mechanisms. Thereafter I show three case studies that evaluate approaches to protecting RCB components and thereby aim to achieve a software stack that is fully protected against hardware errors