Team for Research in
Ubiquitous Secure Technology

Citation
Emin Gun Sirer, Willem de Bruijn, Patrick Reynolds, Alan Shieh, Kevin Walsh, Dan Williams, Fred Schneider. "Logical attestation: an authorization architecture for trustworthy computing". Proceedings of the Twenty-Third ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles, 2011.

Abstract
This paper describes the design and implementation of a new operating system authorization architecture to support trustworthy computing. Called logical attestation, this architecture provides a sound framework for reasoning about run time behavior of applications. Logical attestation is based on attributable, unforgeable statements about program properties, expressed in a logic. These statements are suitable for mechanical processing, proof construction, and verification; they can serve as credentials, support authorization based on expressive authorization policies, and enable remote principals to trust software components without restricting the local user's choice of binary implementations. We have implemented logical attestation in a new operating system called the Nexus. The Nexus executes natively on x86 platforms equipped with secure coprocessors. It supports both native Linux applications and uses logical attestation to support new trustworthy-computing applications. When deployed on a trustworthy cloud-computing stack, logical attestation is efficient, achieves high-performance, and can run applications that provide qualitative guarantees not possible with existing modes of attestation.

Electronic downloads

• http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=2043556.2043580

• HTML

  Emin Gun Sirer, Willem de Bruijn, Patrick Reynolds, Alan
  Shieh, Kevin Walsh, Dan Williams, Fred Schneider. <a
  href="http://www.truststc.org/pubs/874.html"
  >Logical attestation: an authorization architecture for
  trustworthy computing</a>, Proceedings of the
  Twenty-Third ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles,
  2011.

• Plain text

  Emin Gun Sirer, Willem de Bruijn, Patrick Reynolds, Alan
  Shieh, Kevin Walsh, Dan Williams, Fred Schneider.
  "Logical attestation: an authorization architecture for
  trustworthy computing". Proceedings of the Twenty-Third
  ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles, 2011.

• BibTeX

  @inproceedings{SirerdeBruijnReynoldsShiehWalshWilliamsSchneider11_LogicalAttestationAuthorizationArchitectureForTrustworthy,
      author = {Emin Gun Sirer and Willem de Bruijn and Patrick
                Reynolds and Alan Shieh and Kevin Walsh and Dan
                Williams and Fred Schneider},
      title = {Logical attestation: an authorization architecture
                for trustworthy computing},
      booktitle = {Proceedings of the Twenty-Third ACM Symposium on
                Operating Systems Principles},
      year = {2011},
      abstract = {This paper describes the design and implementation
                of a new operating system authorization
                architecture to support trustworthy computing.
                Called logical attestation, this architecture
                provides a sound framework for reasoning about run
                time behavior of applications. Logical attestation
                is based on attributable, unforgeable statements
                about program properties, expressed in a logic.
                These statements are suitable for mechanical
                processing, proof construction, and verification;
                they can serve as credentials, support
                authorization based on expressive authorization
                policies, and enable remote principals to trust
                software components without restricting the local
                user's choice of binary implementations. We have
                implemented logical attestation in a new operating
                system called the Nexus. The Nexus executes
                natively on x86 platforms equipped with secure
                coprocessors. It supports both native Linux
                applications and uses logical attestation to
                support new trustworthy-computing applications.
                When deployed on a trustworthy cloud-computing
                stack, logical attestation is efficient, achieves
                high-performance, and can run applications that
                provide qualitative guarantees not possible with
                existing modes of attestation.},
      URL = {http://www.truststc.org/pubs/874.html}
  }
  

Posted by Mary Stewart on 4 Apr 2012.
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