Analyzing the security of an existing computer system

Most work concerning secure computer systems has dealt with the design, verification, and implementation of provably secure computer systems, or has explored ways of making existing computer systems more secure. The problem of locating security holes in existing systems has received considerably less attention; methods generally rely on thought experiments as a critical step in the procedure. The difficulty is that such experiments require that a large amount of information be available in a format that makes correlating the details of various programs straightforward. This paper describes a method of providing such a basis for the thought experiment by writing a special manual for parts of the operating system, system programs, and library subroutines

Towards a formally verified microkernel using the Frama-C toolset

This dissertation is included in the MSc course in Computer Science of the University of Beira Interior. It is a Formal Method’s related dissertation, where it’s used an Hoare Logic based paradigm, the Design by Contract (DbC). This project consists in doing a Formal Verification of an industrial real-time Operating System (OS) kernel. The OS kernel that is verified is the eXtending free/open-source reaL-time execUtive for oN-board space Applications (xLuna). It is an OS from a portuguese company, CSW. The code that was verified is the real source code of xLuna. More precisely the source code of the Interrupt request (IRQ) Manager module. The platform that was used to do the verification is the FRAmework for Modular Analyses of C (Frama-C) Toolset which is a platform that allows the verification of C code. Some incompatibilities were found in the use of the Frama-C in the source code of the IRQ Manager. Both results and Frama-C incompatibilities will be analyzed in the dissertation

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

Study of fault-tolerant software technology

Presented is an overview of the current state of the art of fault-tolerant software and an analysis of quantitative techniques and models developed to assess its impact. It examines research efforts as well as experience gained from commercial application of these techniques. The paper also addresses the computer architecture and design implications on hardware, operating systems and programming languages (including Ada) of using fault-tolerant software in real-time aerospace applications. It concludes that fault-tolerant software has progressed beyond the pure research state. The paper also finds that, although not perfectly matched, newer architectural and language capabilities provide many of the notations and functions needed to effectively and efficiently implement software fault-tolerance

A bibliography on formal methods for system specification, design and validation

Literature on the specification, design, verification, testing, and evaluation of avionics systems was surveyed, providing 655 citations. Journal papers, conference papers, and technical reports are included. Manual and computer-based methods were employed. Keywords used in the online search are listed

NASA space station automation: AI-based technology review

Research and Development projects in automation for the Space Station are discussed. Artificial Intelligence (AI) based automation technologies are planned to enhance crew safety through reduced need for EVA, increase crew productivity through the reduction of routine operations, increase space station autonomy, and augment space station capability through the use of teleoperation and robotics. AI technology will also be developed for the servicing of satellites at the Space Station, system monitoring and diagnosis, space manufacturing, and the assembly of large space structures

On the engineering of crucial software

The various aspects of the conventional software development cycle are examined. This cycle was the basis of the augmented approach contained in the original grant proposal. This cycle was found inadequate for crucial software development, and the justification for this opinion is presented. Several possible enhancements to the conventional software cycle are discussed. Software fault tolerance, a possible enhancement of major importance, is discussed separately. Formal verification using mathematical proof is considered. Automatic programming is a radical alternative to the conventional cycle and is discussed. Recommendations for a comprehensive approach are presented, and various experiments which could be conducted in AIRLAB are described