CSR: Small: Hardware/Software Co-Monitoring

操作系统崩溃会导致重要服务中断、生产力损失和系统可信度降低。操作系统崩溃的一个常见原因是硬件设备及其驱动程序之间的交互出现故障。这种设备/驱动程序故障也是一种安全威胁，安装在驱动程序中的后门可能会进一步加剧这种威胁。该项目将开发在运行时监控设备/驱动程序交互的技术，该技术可用于增强驱动程序的可靠性和安全性。该项目探索硬件/软件协同监控，即同时监控硬件设备和软件驱动程序。这项研究有四个主要目标。首先，它开发了在设备/驱动程序接口上运行时验证属性的技术。其次，它提供针对设备和驱动程序故障的保护和适配机制。第三，它有助于检测(和保护)暂时性硬件故障。由于缺乏可重播性，使用传统的调试方法尤其难以检测到这些错误。第四，它提供了安全漏洞的早期检测机制，以及系统对即时保护和适应机制的支持。该项目的成果是，面对具有许多不同设备和驱动程序的集成系统的持续趋势，开发值得信赖的计算机的工具。结果将通过学术出版物传播，公开发布共同监测框架及其支持工具，纳入本科生和研究生课程，并通过积极合作向行业转让技术。

Operating system crashes result in the interruption of vital services, productivity losses, and diminished system trustworthiness. A frequent cause of operating system crashes is a malfunction in the interaction between a hardware device and its driver. Such device/driver malfunctions are also a security threat which can be further exacerbated by backdoors planted in the drivers. This project will develop techniques to monitor device/driver interactions at run-time which can be used to enhance driver reliability and security.This project explores hardware/software co-monitoring, i.e., simultaneous monitoring of hardware devices and software drivers. The research has four main goals. First, it develops techniques for run-time verification of properties at the device/driver interfaces. Second, it offers protection and adaptation mechanisms against both device and driver malfunctions. Third, it facilitates detection of (and protection against) transient hardware failures. These errors are particularly difficult to detect with traditional debugging methods, because of lack of replayability. Fourth, it provides a mechanism for early detection of security vulnerabilities, and system supports for on-the-fly protection and adaptation mechanisms. The outcomes of this project are tools for developing trustworthy computers in the face of a continual trend towards integrated systems with many disparate devices and drivers. The results will be disseminated by academic publications, publicly releasing the co-monitoring framework and its supporting tools, integration into undergraduate and graduate curricula, and technology transfer to the industry via active collaboration.