SoK: Understanding the Attack Surface in Device Driver Isolation Frameworks

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Huang, Yongzhe, Huang, Kaiming, Ennis, Matthew, Narayanan, Vikram, Burtsev, Anton, Jaeger, Trent, Tan, Gang
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Huang, Yongzhe
Huang, Kaiming
Ennis, Matthew
Narayanan, Vikram
Burtsev, Anton
Jaeger, Trent
Tan, Gang
author_facet Huang, Yongzhe
Huang, Kaiming
Ennis, Matthew
Narayanan, Vikram
Burtsev, Anton
Jaeger, Trent
Tan, Gang
contents Device driver isolation is a promising approach for protecting the kernel from faulty or malicious drivers, but the actual security provided by such frameworks is often not well understood. Recent research has identified Compartment Interface Vulnerabilities (CIVs) in userspace compartmentalized applications, yet their impact on driver isolation frameworks remains poorly understood. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of the design and security guarantees of existing driver isolation frameworks and systemizes existing CIV classifications, evaluating them under driver isolation. The analysis shows that different classes of CIVs are prevalent across the studied drivers under a baseline threat model, with large drivers having more than 100 instances of different CIVs and an average of 33 instances across the studied drivers. Enforcing extra security properties, such as CFI, can reduce the number of CIVs to around 28 instances on average. This study provides insights for understanding existing driver isolation security and the prevalence of CIVs in the driver isolation context, and extracts useful insights that can provide security guidance for future driver isolation systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_16754
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle SoK: Understanding the Attack Surface in Device Driver Isolation Frameworks
Huang, Yongzhe
Huang, Kaiming
Ennis, Matthew
Narayanan, Vikram
Burtsev, Anton
Jaeger, Trent
Tan, Gang
Cryptography and Security
Device driver isolation is a promising approach for protecting the kernel from faulty or malicious drivers, but the actual security provided by such frameworks is often not well understood. Recent research has identified Compartment Interface Vulnerabilities (CIVs) in userspace compartmentalized applications, yet their impact on driver isolation frameworks remains poorly understood. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of the design and security guarantees of existing driver isolation frameworks and systemizes existing CIV classifications, evaluating them under driver isolation. The analysis shows that different classes of CIVs are prevalent across the studied drivers under a baseline threat model, with large drivers having more than 100 instances of different CIVs and an average of 33 instances across the studied drivers. Enforcing extra security properties, such as CFI, can reduce the number of CIVs to around 28 instances on average. This study provides insights for understanding existing driver isolation security and the prevalence of CIVs in the driver isolation context, and extracts useful insights that can provide security guidance for future driver isolation systems.
title SoK: Understanding the Attack Surface in Device Driver Isolation Frameworks
topic Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.16754