4 ms·

I can’t help but feel CHERI is a hardware hack for a software problem. Hardware has no business patching software’s errors. Given the history of vulnerabilities

by cedws 2y ago

I can’t help but feel CHERI is a hardware hack for a software problem. Hardware has no business patching software’s errors. Given the history of vulnerabilities in hardware security features themselves, I’m also sceptical of it being a long term, robust solution. For instance, I recall a paper busting ARM’s Memory Tagging Extension.

wk_end 2y ago
Do you hold the same opinion about hardware support for memory protection?
pjmlp 2y ago
Unfortunelly 50 years of experience have proven that C Machines are the only way to put C devs into their place, in regards to security first mindset. Solaris has been doing this since 2016, with SPARC ADI.
- gnufx 2y ago
  CHERI is very different from that in multiple ways, and then SPARC/Solaris is doubly moribund.
  - pjmlp 2y ago
    The main difference is that SPARC Solaris is actually used in production, regardless of how many existing deployments.
gnufx 2y ago
Peter Sewell has talked about "underpinning the foundations" e.g. [1], but that's not a performance like [2], [3]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptSUKbKe4c4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptSUKbKe4c4 [2] https://media.ccc.de/v/31c3_-_6574_-_en_-_saal_1_-_201412301245_-_why_are_computers_so_and_what_can_we_do_about_it_-_peter_sewell https://media.ccc.de/v/31c3_-_6574_-_en_-_saal_1_-_201412301... [3] https://media.ccc.de/v/35c3-9647-taming_the_chaos_can_we_build_systems_that_actually_work https://media.ccc.de/v/35c3-9647-taming_the_chaos_can_we_bui...
ksec 2y ago
>I can’t help but feel CHERI is a hardware hack for a software problem. It is a hardware solution for software problem. Pretty much like a lot of things in hardware just to make software faster or easier.