Transparent code authentication at the processor level

Durahim, Onur Ahmet and Savaş, Erkay and Sunar, Berk and Pedersen, Thomas Brochmann and Kocabaş, Övünç (2009) Transparent code authentication at the processor level. IET Computers & Digital Techniques, 3 (4). pp. 354-372. ISSN 1751-8601

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Abstract

The authors present a lightweight authentication mechanism that verifies the authenticity of code and thereby addresses the virus and malicious code problems at the hardware level eliminating the need for trusted extensions in the operating system. The technique proposed tightly integrates the authentication mechanism into the processor core. The authentication latency is hidden behind the memory access latency, thereby allowing seamless on-the-fly authentication of instructions. In addition, the proposed authentication method supports seamless encryption of code (and static data). Consequently, while providing the software users with assurance for authenticity of programs executing on their hardware, the proposed technique also protects the software manufacturers’ intellectual property through encryption. The performance analysis shows that, under mild assumptions, the presented technique introduces negligible overhead for even moderate cache sizes.
Item Type: Article
Subjects: T Technology > TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering > TK7800-8360 Electronics > TK7885-7895 Computer engineering. Computer hardware
Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA075 Electronic computers. Computer science
Divisions: Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences > Academic programs > Computer Science & Eng.
Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences
Depositing User: Erkay Savaş
Date Deposited: 02 Dec 2009 12:41
Last Modified: 24 Jul 2019 09:46
URI: https://research.sabanciuniv.edu/id/eprint/12979

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