Abstract

This paper presents AHEMS (Asynchronous Hardware-Enforced Memory Safety), an architectural support for enforcing spatial and temporal memory safety to protect against memory corruption attacks. We integrated AHEMS with the Leon3 open-source processor and prototype on an FPGA. In an evaluation of the detection coverage using 677 security test cases (including spatial and temporal memory errors), selected from the Juliet Test Suite, AHEMS detected all but one memory safety violation. The missed test case involves overflow of a sub-object in a data structure whose detection is not supported by the current prototype. Performance assessment using the Olden benchmarks shows an average 10.6% overhead, and negligible impact on the processor-critical path (0.06% overhead) and power consumption (0.5% overhead).

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2014 17th Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design, DSD 2014
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages183-190
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9781479957934
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 16 2014
Event17th Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design, DSD 2014 - Verona, Italy
Duration: Aug 27 2014Aug 29 2014

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2014 17th Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design, DSD 2014

Other

Other17th Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design, DSD 2014
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityVerona
Period8/27/148/29/14

Keywords

  • Hardware enforced security
  • Memory safety

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Information Systems
  • Hardware and Architecture

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'AHEMS: Asynchronous hardware-enforced memory safety'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this