摘要:
A method, computer program product, and data processing system for protecting sensitive program code and data (including persistently stored data) from unauthorized access are disclosed. Dedicated hardware decrypts an encrypted kernel into memory for execution. When an application is to be executed, the kernel computes one or more secrets by cryptographically combining information contained in the application with secret information contained in the kernel itself. The kernel then deletes its secret information and passes the computed secrets to the application. To store data persistently in memory, the application uses one of the computed secrets to encrypt the data prior to storage. If the kernel starts another instance of the same application, the kernel (which will have been re-decrypted to restore the kernel's secrets) will compute the same one or more secrets, thus allowing the second application instance to access the data encrypted by the first application instance.
摘要:
A method, computer program product, and data processing system are disclosed for ensuring that applications executed in the data processing system originate only from trusted sources are disclosed. In a preferred embodiment, a secure operating kernel maintains a “key ring” containing keys corresponding to trusted software vendors. The secure kernel uses vendor keys to verify that a given application was signed by an approved vendor. To make it possible for independent developers to develop software for the herein-described platform, a “global key pair” is provided in which both the public and private keys of the pair are publicly known, so that anyone may sign an application with the global key. Such an application may be allowed to execute by including the global key pair's public key in the key ring as a “vendor key” or, conversely, it may be disallowed by excluding the global public key from the key ring.
摘要:
A method, computer program product, and data processing system for executing larger-than-physical-memory applications while protecting sensitive program code (and also data) from unauthorized access in a memory space not subject to protection fault or page fault detection are disclosed. Large applications are accommodated by providing a mechanism for secure program overlays, in which a single large application is broken into two or more smaller applications (overlays) that can be executed from the same memory space by overwriting one of the smaller applications with another of the smaller applications when the latter needs to be executed. So that the data may be shared among these smaller applications, each of the applications contains embedded cryptographic keys, which may be used to encrypt or decrypt information to be stored persistently while control is transferred from one application to the other.
摘要:
A method, computer program product, and data processing system for providing an updateable encrypted operating kernel are disclosed. In a preferred embodiment, secure initialization hardware decrypts a minimal secure kernel containing sensitive portions of data and/or code into a portion of the processor-accessible memory space, from which the kernel is executed. Most system software functions are not directly supported by the secure kernel but are provided by dynamically loaded kernel extensions that are encrypted with a public key so that they can only be decrypted with a private key possessed by the secure kernel. The public/private key pair is processor-specific. Before passing control to a kernel extension the secure kernel deletes a subset of its sensitive portions, retaining only those sensitive portions needed to perform the task(s) delegated to the kernel extension. Which sensitive portions are retained is determined by a cryptographic key with which the kernel extension is signed.
摘要:
A method, computer program product, and data processing system are disclosed for protecting sensitive program code (and also data) from unauthorized access in a memory space not subject to protection fault detection. In a preferred embodiment, secure initialization hardware loads the sensitive code from a storage location accessible only to the secure initialization hardware itself and decrypts the sensitive code into a portion of the processor-accessible memory space, from which the code is executed. Once execution of the sensitive code has completed, all or at least a portion of the code is deleted before passing control to application software. If the application software needs to cause the sensitive code to be executed, the secure initialization hardware is activated to reload/decrypt a fresh copy of the sensitive code into the memory space and cause the code to be executed. Before control is returned to the application software, the sensitive code is again deleted to prevent unauthorized access.