Department of Computer Science and Technology

CTSRD

Related


The CTSRD project builds on a long history of work in computer architecture, operating systems, programming languages, and security, both at SRI and Cambridge, and elsewhere. On this page, we have gathered a few links to recent and ongoing projects that have been direct influences on our work.

  • Capsicum: practical capabilities for UNIX. Our concerns with the scalability of fine-grained application compartmentalisation originated in this work at the University of Cambridge, as well as ideas about the hybridisation of capability models with contemporary operating system (and CPU) design explored further in CHERI. Reasoning about the correctness of Capsicum also led us to aspects of our approach in TESLA.
  • Mirage. Developed at the University of Cambridge, Mirage is an exokernel for constructing secure, high-performance network applications across a variety of cloud computing and mobile platforms. Mirage is based on the OCaml language, with syntax extensions and libraires which provide networking, storage, and concurrency support. Mirage can compile fully standalone, specialised microkernels to run on Xen, and we hope also to target CHERI.
  • Xen. Developed at the University of Cambridge, the Xen hypervisor is widely used in research and industry for full-machine virtualisation. It has been used as a platform for a variety of security research, and brings to the forefront limitations of current CPU architectures in supporting scalable protection. We would like to maintain full-system virtualisation facilities in CHERI. Reasoning about Xen's correctness will also benefit from TESLA.