Reflection as a mechanism for software integrity verification

  • Authors:
  • Diomidis Spinellis

  • Affiliations:
  • Univ. of the Aegean, Karlovasi, Greece

  • Venue:
  • ACM Transactions on Information and System Security (TISSEC)
  • Year:
  • 2000

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Abstract

The integrity verification of a device's controlling software is an important aspect of many emerging information appliances. We propose the use of reflection, whereby the software is able to examine its own operation, in conjunction with cryptographic hashes as a basis for developing a suitable software verification protocol. For more demanding applications meta-reflective techniques can be used to thwart attacks based on device emulation strategies. We demonstrate how our approach can be used to increase the security of mobile phones, devices for the delivery of digital content, and smartcards.