Intel and UC San Diego Join DARPA Program to Prevent Exploitation of Computing Systems
“The growing complexity of computer systems leads to more avenues for executing exploits. Through the DARPA HARDEN program, we will deepen research with UC San Diego to achieve a practical method to harden legacy and future systems against cyberattacks across the government computing landscape and beyond.”
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How It Works: To address threats of cyberattack,
At UC San Diego, the effort will be led by professors
Why It Matters: Since at least the mid-1960s, computer scientists have sought “capability-based access control” for its thorough security. Capabilities enlighten processors to fine-grained divisions between data objects in memory, which enables addressing memory safety issues that have persistently accounted for most software vulnerabilities across the industry. These can provide an entry point for adversaries to launch “emergent execution” attacks, which manipulate complex interacting system behaviors (sometimes called “weird machine” behaviors) to compromise data and system operation.
HARDEN will help create practical tools to prevent the exploitation of integrated computing systems by disrupting the patterns of robust, reliable exploits used by attackers and depriving the attackers of emergent execution engines.
The Details: Intel has a long history of developing capability-based access control mechanisms, such as in the iAPX 432 and i960MX processors from the 1980s. The C3 system published at the MICRO 2021 conference overcomes substantial limitations of prior capability-based access control mechanisms, like their heavy reliance on metadata (data about data) that is expensive to store and process, and their incompatibility with legacy code. C3 effectively replaces inefficient metadata with efficient cryptography by encrypting individual pointers and data objects in a way that can be widely deployed, even to legacy x86 software.
The HARDEN program will enable Intel and UC San Diego to further investigate and demonstrate C3’s potential to improve security for legacy and future systems on
What’s Next: The HARDEN program will run for 48 months and is organized into three phases: Phases 1 and 2 will each be 18 months, followed by a 12-month Phase 3. Intel is proud to be a part of this pioneering work with UC San Diego and
About Intel
Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) is an industry leader, creating world-changing technology that enables global progress and enriches lives. Inspired by Moore’s Law, we continuously work to advance the design and manufacturing of semiconductors to help address our customers’ greatest challenges. By embedding intelligence in the cloud, network, edge and every kind of computing device, we unleash the potential of data to transform business and society for the better. To learn more about Intel’s innovations, go to newsroom.intel.com and intel.com.
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