CPU Support for Secure Executables

Abstract

Vulnerabilities in complex software are a major threat to the security of today’s computer systems, with the alarming prevalence of malware and rootkits making it difficult to guarantee security in a networked environment. Due to the widespread application of information technology to all aspects of society, these vulnerabilities threaten virtually all aspects of modern life.

To protect software and data against these threats, we describe simple extensions to the Power Architecture for running Secure Executables. By using a combination of cryptographic techniques and context labeling in the CPU, these Secure Executables are protected on disk, in memory, and through all stages of execution against malicious or compromised software, and other hardware. Moreover, we show that this can be done efficiently, without significant performance penalty. Secure Executables can run simultaneously with unprotected executables; existing applications can be transformed directly into Secure Executables without changes to the source code.