2007 Reports

A Model for Automatically Repairing Execution Integrity

Locasto, Michael E.; Cretu, Gabriela F.; Stavrou, Angelos; Keromytis, Angelos D.

Many users value applications that continue execution in the face of attacks. Current software protection techniques typically abort a process after an intrusion attempt ({\it e.g.}, a code injection attack). We explore ways in which the security property of integrity can support availability. We extend the Clark-Wilson Integrity Model to provide primitives and rules for specifying and enforcing repair mechanisms and validation of those repairs. Users or administrators can use this model to write or automatically synthesize \emph{repair policy}. The policy can help customize an application's response to attack. We describe two prototype implementations for transparently applying these policies without modifying source code.