4 ms·

What I've always wondered is how hard it is to have both a production system running some software on some hardware both of which may or may not have a backdoor

What I've always wondered is how hard it is to have both a production system running some software on some hardware both of which may or may not have a backdoor and have a sentry system running next to it on different hardware that is somehow watching the first system for traffic anomalies not aligned with how the first system should be functioning. On top of that the first production system also watches the sentry for signs of disabling or tampering. With two machines watching each other, I would imagine that it's much harder to use any backdoor without being detected and shut down. In a similar vein, would it not be possible to spot hardware backdoors in PRNG by running many identical encryption tests across many different types of hardware looking for one that doesn't behave like the others? More generally, what tools exist for the automatic detection and mitigation of backdoors?

konstruktor 13y ago
On the Space Shuttle, four computers with identical software ran redundantly, and a fifth with independent software was used to detect errors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/History/computers/Ch4-4.html http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/History/computers/Ch4-4.html This was, of course, very expensive, and made software changes a very difficult and slow process.
mje__ 13y ago
It doesn't mitigate untrusted software, but an interesting approach to tamper resistance can be found in Infineon SLE78 security controllers (for smart cards, etc). They run dual CPUs out-of-sync and compare results after each instruction. http://www.infineon.com/cms/en/product/chip-card-and-security-ics/security-controller-contact-based/sle-78-solid-flash-tm-family-digital-security-controller/channel.html?channel=db3a30431ce5fb52011d47b166342af0 http://www.infineon.com/cms/en/product/chip-card-and-securit...

konstruktor 13y ago

On the Space Shuttle, four computers with identical software ran redundantly, and a fifth with independent software was used to detect errors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/History/computers/Ch4-4.html http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/History/computers/Ch4-4.html This was, of course, very expensive, and made software changes a very difficult and slow process.

mje__ 13y ago

It doesn't mitigate untrusted software, but an interesting approach to tamper resistance can be found in Infineon SLE78 security controllers (for smart cards, etc). They run dual CPUs out-of-sync and compare results after each instruction. http://www.infineon.com/cms/en/product/chip-card-and-security-ics/security-controller-contact-based/sle-78-solid-flash-tm-family-digital-security-controller/channel.html?channel=db3a30431ce5fb52011d47b166342af0 http://www.infineon.com/cms/en/product/chip-card-and-securit...