A Multi-OS Approach to Trusted Computer Systems Based on: H. Yoshiura et. al., “A Multi-OS Approach to Trusted Computer Systems”, Security Protocols, LNCS 2467, pp 107-114, 2002. Kenji Sumida COMPSCI 725 FC 2003
Summary Aims to find a secure system which can be implemented in the private sector Problems: Efficiency vs. Security, Cost Use two operating systems A “user” OS (insecure) and “monitoring” OS (secure) Multi-OS controller (MOC) switches from the user OS to monitoring OS when required Aims to provide “best of both worlds” Flexibility and usability of user OS, and security of monitoring OS
Appreciative/Critical Comments Easy to comprehend Does not present a real world example Orange book may not be a relevant measure for private sector businesses Considers both online attacks and offline attacks Good that it considers offline attacks But makes many assumptions (even with online attacks) We will see this in an example in the next two slides
An example system: implementing MAC
Online attacks To the example system Attacks to the User OS Assume access requests go through the required processes Attacks to the Monitoring OS Assume it is adequately secure Attacks to the MOC Apparently under research and the paper does not expand on this further No real evidence that the system works
Question Is it a reasonable assumption made by the authors that all requests to the file system made by user processes are hooked by the MOC, and control passed to the Monitoring OS?