Powered by OpenAIRE graph
Found an issue? Give us feedback

Border Patrol: Improving Smart Device Security through Type-Aware Systems Design

Funder: UK Research and InnovationProject code: EP/N028201/1
Funded under: EPSRC Funder Contribution: 1,765,760 GBP
visibility
download
views
OpenAIRE UsageCountsViews provided by UsageCounts
downloads
OpenAIRE UsageCountsDownloads provided by UsageCounts
23
7

Border Patrol: Improving Smart Device Security through Type-Aware Systems Design

Description

There are increasing concerns about the safety and security of critical infrastructure such as nuclear power plants, the electricity grid and other utilities in the face of possible cyber attacks. As ageing controllers are replaced by smart devices based on Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and embedded microprocessors, the safety of such devices raises many concerns. In particular, there is the very real risk of malicious functionality hidden in the silicon or in software binaries, dormant and waiting to be activated. Current hardware and software systems are of such complexity that it is impossible to discover such malicious code through testing. We aim to address this problem by closely connecting the system design specification with the actual implementation through the use of a formal design methodology based on type systems with static and dynamic type checking. The type system will be used as a formal language to encode the design specification so that the actual implementation will automatically be checked against the specification. Static type checking of data types and multiparty session types can ensure the correctness of the interaction between the components. However, as static checking assume full access to the design source code it cannot be used to protect against potential threads issuing from third-party functional blocks (know as ``Intellectual Property Cores'' or IP cores) that are commonly used in hardware design: the provider of the IP core can claim adherence to the types and protocols, so that the IP core will meet the compile-time requirements, but the run-time the behaviour cannot be controlled using static techniques. The same applies to third-party compiled software libraries. Therefore we propose to use run-time checking of data types as well as session types at the boundaries of untrusted modules ("Border Patrol"), so that any intentional or unintentional breach of the specification will safely be intercepted.

Data Management Plans
  • OpenAIRE UsageCounts
    Usage byUsageCounts
    visibility views 23
    download downloads 7
  • 23
    views
    7
    downloads
    Powered byOpenAIRE UsageCounts
Powered by OpenAIRE graph
Found an issue? Give us feedback

Do the share buttons not appear? Please make sure, any blocking addon is disabled, and then reload the page.

All Research products
arrow_drop_down
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
document.write('<div id="oa_widget"></div>');
document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.openaire.eu/index.php?option=com_openaire&view=widget&format=raw&projectId=ukri________::93ca84baea2b86aaf8a8705745918dce&type=result"></script>');
-->
</script>
For further information contact us at helpdesk@openaire.eu

No option selected
arrow_drop_down