Abstract
Executing untrusted code while preserving security requires that the code be prevented from modifying memory or executing instructions except as explicitly allowed. Software-based fault isolation (SFI) or “sandboxing” enforces such a policy by rewriting the untrusted code at the instruction level. However, the original sandboxing technique of Wahbe et al. is applicable only to RISC architectures, and most other previous work is either insecure, or has been not described in enough detail to give confidence in its security properties. We present a new sandboxing technique that can be applied to a CISC architecture like the IA-32, and whose application can be checked at load-time to minimize the TCB. We describe an implementation which provides a robust security guarantee and has low runtime overheads (an average of 21% on the SPECint2000 benchmarks). We evaluate the utility of the technique by applying it to untrusted decompression modules in an archive tool, and its safety by constructing a machine-checked proof that any program approved by the verification algorithm will respect the desired safety property.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages | 209-224 |
Number of pages | 16 |
State | Published - 2006 |
Externally published | Yes |
Event | 15th USENIX Security Symposium - Vancouver, Canada Duration: Jul 31 2006 → Aug 4 2006 |
Conference
Conference | 15th USENIX Security Symposium |
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Country/Territory | Canada |
City | Vancouver |
Period | 7/31/06 → 8/4/06 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Bryan Ford provided us with the VXA infrastructure used in the case study of Section 8, and Mihai Budiu and Úlfar Erlingsson provided results for Figure 9 and answered other questions about CFI. Members of the MIT PDOS and PAG groups, and the Harvard programming languages and compilers groups, provided a number of helpful suggestions. The first author is supported by a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship.
Funding Information:
Bryan Ford provided us with the VXA infrastructure used in the case study of Section 8, and Mihai Budiu and Úlfar Er-lingsson provided results for Figure 9 and answered other questions about CFI. Members of the MIT PDOS and PAG groups, and the Harvard programming languages and compilers groups, provided a number of helpful suggestions. The first author is supported by a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2006 USENIX Association. All rights reserved.