A Specialization Toolkit to Increase the Diversity of Operating Systems
Calton Pu, Andrew P. Black, Crispin Cowan, Jonathan Walpole, Charles Consel · PDXScholar (Portland State University) · 1996
Virus and worm attacks that exploit system implementation details can be countered with a diversified set of implementations. Furthermore, immune systems show that attacks from previously unknown organisms require effective dynamic response. In the Synthetix project, we have been developing a specialization toolkit to improve the performance of operating system kernels. The toolkit helps programmers generate and manage diverse specialized implementations of software modules. The Tempo-C specializer tool generates different versions for both compile-time and run-time specialization. We are now adapting the toolkit to improve operating system survivability against implementations attacks. Index terms: specialization, information survivability, operating systems, software diversity. 1 If the paper is accepted, Calton Pu will give the presentation at the workshop. 1 Effort sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Rome Laboratory, Air Force Material Command, USAF,...