Galois proposes to develop a trusted document server (DocServer) to mediate the connection between a user's workstation and files to which they have access. Users will connect to a single "virtual" combined file and web server from which they may browse, open, edit and save documents, using COTS… More

Our method of enabling cross-domain collaboration allows documents whose contents have a mixture of sensitivity levels to be viewed and edited by users with differing clearance levels, while maintaining the requisite security constraints. In particular, we've identified the following key technical… More

We propose to design and implement a domain-specific language (DSL) called Nettle that will eliminate a large class of network misconfiguration errors, together with a verification tool that will be used to establish the correctness of other network configuration specifications. Advantages of our… More

Galois proposes to develop a Cross-Domain RSS Processor and Router (CDRSS) that will serve as the junction between data sources and network clients at potentially different network sensitivity levels. RSS is one member of a growing family of standard protocols with a simple, fixed schema that… More

Field Programmable Gate Arrays are widely recognized as an attractive technology for satisfying the needs of U.S. Government Crypto Modernization programs. However, FPGA technology creates some interesting challenges in terms of reliability and assurance of crypto implementations. In the late 1990s,… More

The Department of Homeland Security's charter has a fundamental requirement to collaborate with other government agencies. Secure collaboration on this scale requires strong identity management which can "vouch for" DHS personnel working with other agencies, and makes it possible to provide DHS… More

The threat posed by remote cyber attacks has grown every year, with nation state attacks being the hardest to detect and blunt. A common cyber attack method against remote systems is the code injection attack, where the attacker finds flaws in a remote application then forces the application to… More

Wide-area networks are essential to productivity in commercial enterprises and military organizations. Reliability is difficult to achieve because wide-area networks, such as the Internet, are built from many autonomously configured component networks. Today there exists a large gap between the… More

Grid computing makes significant computational and data resources accessible to distributed teams of scientific researchers. In doing so, it also poses a challenge: how best to apply social and collaboration software techniques to improve the efficiency of collaboration between distributed teams… More

Many hardware trojans depend on (a) the ability of an attacker to have an accurate model of the target system and of key software used on that system and (b) identification of one or more deterministic trigger conditions with low observability (i.e., conditions that evade detection by traditional… More

Mobile applications are becoming ubiquitous, appearing in many new situations. Some of these areas have specific requirements pertaining to information flow and device functionality. However, software on these devices is currently unregulated, and there are mechanisms within the mobile operating… More

Ensuring User Interface consistency is extremely difficult---manual review and developer coordination is required to achieve uniform interaction metaphors across operating systems, web browsers, applications, and disparate devices. This is complicated by the capabilities of various UI toolkits and… More

Previous separation kernels have been based on safety-critical, real-time embedded operating systems meeting the FAA's DO-178B certification criteria. We believe that these systems' heritage emphasizes trustworthiness over cost, and results in a solution better suited for embedded environments. We… More

Grid computing, the application of many loosely-coupled computers in federation to provide shared resources makes significant compute or storage capabilities accessible to distributed teams of researchers. In doing so, it also poses a challenge: How do distributed teams collaborate effectively… More

Modern High Performance Computing utilizes a variety of different hardware and software platforms. These differences make it difficult to develop reusable components, which lead to a significant decrease of productivity. Our goal is to investigate the design of portable build systems that are… More

When considering high-performance parallel computers, it is easy to overlook the importance of disk storage. In this proposal, we seek to address the topic of disk storage for parallel computers, and create a deployable, robust file system that will reduce downtime due to faults and increase… More

Automated tools are quickly making inroads into casual computing environments, solving progressively more complex tasks. However, these advancements still require trading reliability for convenience. Frequent minor failures are acceptable in casual environments, but critical systems cannot make… More

Low-overhead, real-time data acquisition of executing software is the last line of defense against malicious cyber attacks. A monitoring approach cannot depend on access to source code, as the code may be proprietary and recompilation is too time-intensive. Rather, we propose to monitor the binary… More

The increasingly common use of mobile software platforms such as Android provides convenience and cost savings by consolidating multiple functions within one device. This consolidation comes at a price, however: the interactions between the various software applications (apps) is hard to predict.… More

Ensuring User Interface consistency is extremely difficult - manual review and developer coordination is required to achieve uniform interaction metaphors across operating systems, web browsers, applications, and disparate devices. This is complicated by the capabilities of various UI toolkits and… More

The so-called"software crisis"is continuing unabated. It is all too common for a software project to create software that is hard to maintain, inefficient, bug-ridden, late, and over-budget. Software flaws resulting from this current state of affairs are no longer an inconvenience but… More

DoD operations and infrastructure increasingly depends on software, which makes it an attractive target for our adversaries. Not surprisingly, deception plays a central role in most cyberattacks. To better protect these critical systems, we propose to design and build an"active… More

We propose to build a separation kernel with stronger evidence of correctness than any current product on the market. We will do this by building on work done by Australia's National Information Communications Technology Research Center (NICTA), which includes a complete code-level formal proof… More

Many hardware trojans depend on (a) the ability of an attacker to have an accurate model of the target system and of key software used on that system and (b) identification of one or more deterministic trigger conditions with low observability (i.e., conditions that evade detection by traditional… More