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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Improved Kernel Security Through Code Validation, Diversification, And Minimization, Dannie Michael Stanley
Improved Kernel Security Through Code Validation, Diversification, And Minimization, Dannie Michael Stanley
Open Access Dissertations
The vast majority of hosts on the Internet, including mobile clients, are running one of three commodity, general-purpose operating system families. In such operating systems the kernel software executes at the highest processor privilege level. If an adversary is able to hijack the kernel software then by extension he has full control of the system. This control includes the ability to disable protection mechanisms and hide evidence of compromise.
The lack of diversity in commodity, general-purpose operating systems enables attackers to craft a single kernel exploit that has the potential to infect millions of hosts. If enough variants of the …
The Security And Privacy Implications Of Energy-Proportional Computing, Shane S. Clark
The Security And Privacy Implications Of Energy-Proportional Computing, Shane S. Clark
Open Access Dissertations
The parallel trends of greater energy-efficiency and more aggressive power management are yielding computers that inch closer to energy-proportional computing with every generation. Energy-proportional computing, in which power consumption scales closely with workload, has unintended side effects for security and privacy. Saving energy is an unqualified boon for computer operators, but it is becoming easier to identify computing activities by observing power consumption because an energy-proportional computer reveals more about its workload.
This thesis demonstrates the potential for system-level power analysis---the inference of a computers internal states based on power observation at the "plug." It also examines which hardware components …
Transiently Powered Computers, Benjamin Ransford
Transiently Powered Computers, Benjamin Ransford
Open Access Dissertations
Demand for compact, easily deployable, energy-efficient computers has driven the development of general-purpose transiently powered computers (TPCs) that lack both batteries and wired power, operating exclusively on energy harvested from their surroundings.
TPCs' dependence solely on transient, harvested power offers several important design-time benefits. For example, omitting batteries saves board space and weight while obviating the need to make devices physically accessible for maintenance. However, transient power may provide an unpredictable supply of energy that makes operation difficult. A predictable energy supply is a key abstraction underlying most electronic designs. TPCs discard this abstraction in favor of opportunistic computation that …
Software Techniques To Reduce The Energy Consumption Of Low-Power Devices At The Limits Of Digital Abstractions, Mastooreh Salajegheh
Software Techniques To Reduce The Energy Consumption Of Low-Power Devices At The Limits Of Digital Abstractions, Mastooreh Salajegheh
Open Access Dissertations
My thesis explores the effectiveness of software techniques that bend digital abstractions in order to allow embedded systems to do more with less energy. Recent years have witnessed a proliferation of low-power embedded devices with power ranges of few milliwatts to microwatts. The capabilities and size of the embedded systems continue to improve dramatically; however, improvements in battery density and energy harvesting have failed to mimic a Moore's law. Thus, energy remains a formidable bottleneck for low-power embedded systems.
Instead of trying to create hardware with ideal energy proportionality, my dissertation evaluates how to use unconventional and probabilistic computing that …