Hardware

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Visible to the public SaTC: Hardware-Assisted Methods for Operating System Integrity

Submitted by Vinod Ganapathy on Wed, 10/18/2017 - 10:09am

Operating systems (OS) form the core of the trusted computing base on most computer platforms. The security of a platform therefore crucially relies on the correct and secure operation of its OS. Unfortunately, malicious software such as rootkits infect the OS by compromising the integrity of its code and data, thereby jeopardizing the security of the entire platform.

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Visible to the public TWC: Medium: Micro-Policies: A Framework for Tag-Based Security Monitors

Submitted by Benjamin Pierce on Tue, 10/17/2017 - 4:33pm

Current cybersecurity practice is inadequate to defend against the security threats faced by society. Unlike physical systems, present-day computers lack supervising safety interlocks to help prevent catastrophic failures. Worse, many exploitable vulnerabilities arise from the violation of well-understood safety and security policies that are not enforced due to perceived high performance costs. This project aims to demonstrate how language design and formal verification can leverage emerging hardware capabilities to engineer practical systems with strong security and safety guarantees.

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Visible to the public TWC: Small: Time-Centric Modeling of Correct Behaviors for Efficient Non-intrusive Runtime Detection of Unauthorized System Actions

Submitted by Roman Lysecky on Mon, 10/16/2017 - 2:49pm

Embedded computing systems are found at the heart of medical devices, automotive systems, smartphone, etc. Securing these embedded systems is a significant challenge that requires new methods that address the power, time, and cost requirements under which these systems operate. Because embedded systems must meet precise time requirements, detecting changes in timing can indicate the presence of malware. This research investigates new models for capturing the expected behavior of embedded systems, in which time requirements play a pivotal role.

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Visible to the public SaTC: STARSS: Metric & CAD for DPA Resistance

Submitted by Akhilesh Tyagi on Mon, 10/16/2017 - 10:56am

Physical side channels pose a big threat to the security of embedded hardware. The differential power analysis (DPA) attack is a well known side channel threat which exploits the linear dependence of the power on the secret data or an intermediate value correlated to the secret data through statistical model building. This project addresses the DPA vulnerability by deploying a technology cell library consisting of private gates. The technique developed will make embedded hardware less vulnerable to side-channel attacks, thereby securing private user data and transactions.

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Visible to the public STARSS: Small: Collaborative: Specification and Verification for Secure Hardware

Submitted by Randal Bryant on Thu, 10/12/2017 - 2:19pm

There is a growing need for techniques to detect security vulnerabilities in hardware and at the hardware-software interface. Such vulnerabilities arise from the use of untrusted supply chains for processors and system-on-chip components and from the scope for malicious agents to subvert a system by exploiting hardware defects arising from design errors, incomplete specifications, or maliciously inserted blocks.

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Visible to the public TWC: TTP Option: Frontier: Collaborative: MACS: A Modular Approach to Cloud Security

Submitted by Ran Canetti on Thu, 10/12/2017 - 2:13pm

The goal of the Modular Approach to Cloud Security (MACS) project is to develop methods for building information systems with meaningful multi-layered security guarantees. The modular approach of MACS focuses on systems that are built from smaller and separable functional components, where the security of each component is asserted individually, and where the security of the system as a whole can be derived from the security of its components. The project concentrates on building outsourced, cloud-based information services with client-centric security guarantees.

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Visible to the public TWC: Small: Belling the CAD: Towards Security-Centric Electronic System Level Design

Submitted by Ramesh Karri on Thu, 10/12/2017 - 2:08pm

An Integrated Circuit (ICs) is at the core of many critical applications from financial and healthcare to avionics and military applications. Trustworthy ICs are therefore fundamental in ensuring the safety and security of our society. Unfortunately, cost considerations and globalization have pushed the IC design to a decentralized and distributed paradigm, where the design of a system-on-an-IC (SOC) spans various companies and countries with the fabrication of these SoCs taking place in third party (offshore) foundries.

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Visible to the public TWC: Option: Medium: Collaborative: Authenticated Ciphers

Submitted by Phillip Rogaway on Wed, 10/11/2017 - 12:57pm

OpenSSH reveals excerpts from encrypted login sessions. TLS (HTTPS) reveals encrypted PayPal account cookies. DTLS is no better. EAXprime allows instantaneous forgeries. RFID security has been broken again and again. All of these failures of confidentiality and integrity are failures of authenticated ciphers: algorithms that promise to encrypt and authenticate messages using a shared secret key.

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Visible to the public SaTC: STARSS: FAME: Fault-attack Awareness using Microprocessor Enhancements

Submitted by schaum on Wed, 10/11/2017 - 11:18am

With the tremendous growth of sensitive and security-critical processing on embedded and pervasive platforms, the threat model for secure electronics is expanding from software into hardware. A wide range of fault attacks, based on physical manipulation of the electronics operating environment, is now available to the adversary.

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Visible to the public EDU: Collaborative: Integrating Embedded Systems Security into Computer Engineering and Science Curricula

Submitted by Ning Weng on Tue, 10/10/2017 - 11:42am

With the advancement of technologies, networked devices become ubiquitous in the society. Such devices are not limited to traditional computers and smart phones, but are increasingly extended to cover a wide variety of embedded systems (ES), such as sensors monitoring bridges, electronics controlling the operation of automobiles and industrial equipment, home medicine devices that are constantly reporting patient health information to doctors.