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DARPA

DARPA has announced a $3.half dozen 1000000 grant to a University of Michigan squad with the goal of building an "unhackable" processor. Software-based security has proven incapable of coming together this goal, and while hardware models like Intel'south IME or ARM's TrustZone have had better luck overall, these systems can be afflicted by major bugs themselves and don't protect the entire contents of the microprocessor.

Todd Austin, leader of the Morpheus projection at UM, likens his team'southward design to a giant Rubik'south Cube. His architecture focuses on moving data stored inside the chip to various randomized locations while also constantly re-encrypting stored passwords. Fifty-fifty if a hacker managed to notice a memory block with a countersign in information technology that was vulnerable to decryption, the data won't be there past the time the password-cracker finishes its work. Even modern GPUs, which are staggeringly proficient at password decryption, require fourth dimension to work.

"We are making the calculator an unsolvable puzzle," Austin said. "Information technology's similar if you're solving a Rubik's Cube and every time you blink, I rearrange it. What's incredibly exciting most the project is that it will fix tomorrow's vulnerabilities. I've never known any security system that could be future proof."

DRAM-Hammer

Rowhammer targets either the single regal row to flip the yellow bits or can target both yellowish rows to flip the purple bits.

What the Michigan team is describing would exist an incredibly useful set up of capabilities — if it tin can be made to work. We've seen exploits before, like Rowhammer, that role precisely past targeting a given surface area of memory and hammering side by side rows with repeated accesses in an attempt to flip bits within the target row (hence the name). Zero-day exploits are a mutual and potentially devastating problem. And frankly, it's simply downright tiresome to be forever chasing downwards security bulletins and updating various applications. A chip that could juggle its retentiveness addresses and keep information safely encrypted could be useful in a wide range of security applications.

What'due south less clear is how easily the technology could be integrated into modern processors or what impact these rapid-fire information shifts would take on functionality. The DARPA SSITH project (Organisation Security Integrated Through Hardware and Firmware) specifically states that "The strategic claiming for participants in the SSITH program will be to develop new integrated circuit (IC) architectures that lack the current software-accessible points of illicit entry, yet retain the computational functions and high-performance the ICs were designed to deliver."

DARPA's goal is to fund initial development on a processor design capable of preventing i or more of vii security flaws: Permission and privilege escalations, buffer errors, resource management, information leakage, numeric errors, crypto errors, and code injection. These seven types of attacks supposedly comprise a whopping 40 percentage of all set on types; cutting even i or two of them out could significantly reduce security issues in the military and consumer world.

(Image credit: DARPA)