A survey on formal specification and verification of separation kernels

Separation kernels are fundamental software of safety and security-critical systems, which provide to their hosted applications spatial and temporal separation as well as controlled information flows among partitions. The application of separation kernels in critical domain demands the correctness of the kernel by formal verification. To the best of our knowledge, there is no survey paper on this topic. This paper presents an overview of formal specification and verification of separation kernels. We first present the background including the concept of separation kernel and the comparisons among different kernels. Then, we survey the state of the art on this topic since 2000. Finally, we summarize research work by detailed comparison and discussion

Secure System Virtualization: End-to-End Verification of Memory Isolation

Over the last years, security kernels have played a promising role in reshaping the landscape of platform security on today's ubiquitous embedded devices. Security kernels, such as separation kernels, enable constructing high-assurance mixed-criticality execution platforms. They reduce the software portion of the system's trusted computing base to a thin layer, which enforces isolation between low- and high-criticality components. The reduced trusted computing base minimizes the system attack surface and facilitates the use of formal methods to ensure functional correctness and security of the kernel. In this thesis, we explore various aspects of building a provably secure separation kernel using virtualization technology. In particular, we examine techniques related to the appropriate management of the memory subsystem. Once these techniques were implemented and functionally verified, they provide reliable a foundation for application scenarios that require strong guarantees of isolation and facilitate formal reasoning about the system's overall security