Cyber security experts have long believed that the only way to make computers "unhackable" is to use on-chip hardware, but no one can do that at the moment. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) ) Is achieving this goal through its programs such as HACMS and the Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC).
Recently, DARPA provided $ 3.6 million to the University of Michigan under its 'Hardware and Firmware Integrated System Security' (SSITH) program to continue the development of what is now known as 'unbreakable' microarchitecture .
DARPA hopes to leverage new technologies to develop integrated circuits that are inherently software-neutral, as opposed to the usual way of using software patches to block security holes, said Linton Salmon, project manager for DARPA's Office of Microsystem Technology.
Intel has provided on-chip V-Pro security hardware for many years in its Xeon microprocessor family, but DARPA is working to find computers that can achieve a higher level of protection, especially in the military arena, because on the battlefield Hardware flaws can put soldiers at risk.
Todd Austin, EECS professor at the University of Michigan
DARPA's claimed goal of "defensive hacking" does not seem to be able to deliver truly indestructible hardware, but Todd Austin, a professor at the University of Michigan Department of Electrical Engineering (EECS) that dominates the research program, claims that the methodology used by his research team is called 'Morpheus' , Implementing anti-hacking hardware by exchanging internal code once per second Austin said Morpheus's defense is akin to asking a possible attacker to unlock a new Rubik's cube per second Cube) to crack the security of the chip, in a way that maximizes protection against intrusions, including hacking attacks exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities or attacks not discovered by cybersecurity experts. Austin said Morpheus offers a solution that is proven in the future.
Morpheus comes in handy by constantly changing the location of the firmware and hardware and thus changing the location where the password is stored, and since the password is encrypted, hackers need time to decode, even the fastest hacker can not Find the vulnerability again within a second after decryption.
Morpheus' technology is currently used in military computer software, however, Austin argues that it can eliminate a variety of known vulnerabilities through key hardware operations, including permissions and privileges, buffer errors, resource management, Information disclosure, numerical errors, encryption errors, and code injection.
Austin and his team will use DARPA sponsorship to design the hardware version of the Morpheus protection algorithm into low-cost hardware to limit the impact of unbreakable microprocessor costs. Morpheus is one of nine projects sponsored by DARPA under the SSITH program.
In addition to Austin, researchers working together on the project include Valeria Bertacco, a professor at EECS at the University of Michigan, Mohit Tiwari, assistant professor of electronics and computer engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, and a professor of electronic engineering at Princeton University Sharad Malik, co-director and others.
Compile: Susan Hong