Remote Attestation of Runtime Behaviours via Checking Control-Flow and Data-Flow Integrity

Since most of the remote attestation techniques focus on the load-time integrity of applications by applying checksum functions on static memory regions of the prover (i.e. code segment), they are not able to catch runtime attacks that operate by using only dynamic memory regions such as heap or stack areas. In order to take the runtime attestation a step forward, we propose an attestation scheme that checks the compliance of dynamic properties collected (in a trusted way) with the static features extracted such as control-flow and data-flow information.

This research comes under the EPSRC Cyber Security research theme

It is part of the nature of Cyber Security - and a key reason for the urgency in developing new research approaches - that it now is a concern of every section of society, and so the successful CDT will have a very broad impact indeed. We will ensure impact for:

* The IT industry; vendors of hardware and software, and within this the IT Security industry;

* High value/high assurance sectors such as banking, bio-medical domains, and critical infrastructure, and more generally the CISO community across many industries;

* The mobile systems community, mobile service providers, handset and platform manufacturers, those developing the technologies of the internet of things, and smart cities;

* Defence sector, MoD/DSTL in particular, defence contractors, and the intelligence community;

* The public sector more generally, in its own activities and in increasingly important electronic engagement with the citizen;

* The not-for-profit sector, education, charities, and NGOs - many of whom work in highly contended contexts, but do not always have access to high-grade cyber defensive skills.

Impact in each of these will be achieved in fresh elaborations of threat and risk models; by developing new fundamental design approaches; through new methods of evaluation, incorporating usability criteria, privacy, and other societal concerns; and by developing prototype and proof-of-concept solutions exhibiting these characteristics. These impacts will retain focus through the way that the educational and research programme is structured - so that the academic and theoretical components are directed towards practical and anticipated problems motivated by the sectors listed here.