A mechanism for validating the legal execution path and instructions that works in parallel with normal program execution and imposes a small performance penalty
About
The present technology provides a mechanism for validating the legal execution path and instructions along the legal execution path that works in parallel with normal program execution and imposes a very small performance penalty. The reference information for the validation is stored in an encrypted form in memory. The mechanism is capable of detecting various control flow attacks and dynamic changes to program executables that are done at run-time. Thus, the mechanism provides the basis for building truly trusted computing platforms.
Key Benefits
Performs real-time authentication of programs, libraries and operating system code as the program executes with negligible impact on performance in most cases. Guarantees the detection of control flow attacks and attacks that dynamically change the program executables. Can be easily be retrofitted to an existing microprocessor.