Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Carnegie Mellon University

Emc Corporation

Bryan Jeffrey Parno

Jacob Rubin Lorch

Jonathan Ryan Howell

David Alexander Molnar

Brian Don Zill

Chris Hawblitzel

Jiahe Helen Wang

Barry Clayton Bond

Stuart Schechter

Adrian Perrig

Ari Juels

John R Douceur

Alastair Wolman

Oliver H Foehr

Stefan Saroiu

Ronnie Chaiken

Weidong Cui

Tadayoshi Kohno

Alexander Nikolavich Moshchuk

Helen Jiahe Wang

Franziska Roesner

Virgil Dorin Gligor

Jonathan McCarrell McCune

Amit Vasudevan

Ning Qu

Cynthia Kuo

Robert Wilson Reeder

Anupam Datta

Christopher Stephen Frederick Smowton

Yanlin Li

A verified software system may be executable on secure hardware. Prior to being executed, the software system may be verified as conforming to a software specification. First credentials attesting to an identity of the software system may be sent to an external application. Second credentials signed by a provider of the secure hardware may be sent to the external application. The second credentials may attest to an identity of the secure hardware. The external application may securely exchange one or more messages with a software application of the software system. For example, the one or more messages may be decryptable only by the external application and the software application to provide confidentiality for each message. As another example, an attestation may vouch for an identity of a sender of each of the one or more messages to attest to an integrity of each message.

End-to-end security for hardware running verified software

Various technologies pertaining to authenticating a password in a manner that prevents offline dictionary attacks are described. A protected module, which can be a hardware security module, a trusted platform module, or the like, is in communication with an authentication server. The protected module comprises a key that is restricted to the protected module. The key is employed in connection with authenticating the password on the protected module.

Utilization of a protected module to prevent offline dictionary attacks

Software code of a software system (e.g., a software stack) may be verified as conforming to a specification. A high-level language implementation of the software system may be compiled using a compiler to create an assembly language implementation. A high-level specification corresponding to the software system may be translated to a low-level specification. A verifier may verify that the assembly language implementation functionally conforms to properties described in the low-level specification. In this way, the software system (e.g., a complete software system that includes an operating system, device driver(s), a software library, and one or more applications) may be verified at a low level (e.g., assembly language level).

Automated verification of a software system

A method for providing consistent security information between multiple applications is described herein. The method includes detecting potentially deceptive content from a communication application in a browser application. The method also includes generating consistent security information for the potentially deceptive content with the browser application. Additionally, the method includes sending the consistent security information for the potentially deceptive content to the communication application. Furthermore, the method includes providing a warning based on the consistent security information to the communication application.

Providing consistent security information

The subject disclosure relates to systems and methods that secure anti-virus software through virtualization. Anti-virus systems can be maintained separate from user applications and operating system through virtualization. The user applications and operating system run in a guest virtual machine while anti-virus systems are isolated in a secure virtual machine. The virtual machines are partially interdependent such that the anti-virus systems can monitor user applications and operating systems while the anti-virus systems remain free from possible malicious attack originating from a user environment. Further, the anti-virus system is secured against zero-day attacks so that detection and recovery may occur post zero-day.

Securing anti-virus software with virtualization

Described is a technology by which the identity of a person (e.g., a customer in a commercial transaction) is determinable without active identification effort, via biometric data is obtained without action by the person. Machine processing of the biometric data over a set of possible persons, determined from secondary proximity sensing, is used to determine or assist in determining the identity of the person.

Personal identification combining proximity sensing with biometrics

An access system is described herein which allows an application module to access a user-owned resource based on an indication of a user's intent to interact with the user-owned resource. For example, the application module can provide an application user interface which embeds a gadget associated with a particular user-owned resource. The access system can interpret the user's interaction with the gadget as conferring implicit permission to the application module to access the user-owned resource associated with the gadget. In addition, or alternatively, the user may make a telltale gesture in the course of interacting with the application module. The access system can interpret this gesture as conferring implicit permission to the application module to access a user-owned resource that is associated with the gesture.

User-driven access control

A computer including a processor and a verification device. The processor in the computer performs the steps of authenticating a secure connection between a hypervisor and the verification device, measuring the identity of at least a portion of a select guest before the select guest executes any instruction, and sending a measurement of the identity of the select guest to the verification device. The verification device compares the policy stored in the verification device with the measurement of the select guest received by the verification device. The steps of authenticating, measuring, sending, and comparing are performed after receiving a signal indicative of a request to execute the select guest and without rebooting the computer.

Methods and apparatuses for user-verifiable execution of security-sensitive code

Phishing attacks succeed by exploiting a user's inability to distinguish legitimate websites from spoofed websites. Most prior work focuses on assisting the user in making this distinction; however, users must make the right security decision every time. Unfortunately, humans are ill-suited for performing the security checks necessary for secure site identification, and a single mistake may result in a total compromise of the user's online account. Fundamentally, users should be authenticated using information that they cannot readily reveal to malicious parties. Placing less reliance on the user during the authentication process enhances security and eliminates many forms of fraud. We disclose using a trusted device to perform mutual authentication that eliminates reliance on perfect user behavior, thwarts Man-in-the-Middle attacks after setup, and protects a user's account even in the presence of keyloggers and most forms of spyware.

Method and apparatus for secure online transactions

A technique for securing information involves encrypting raw data into encrypted data based on an initial key. The technique further involves generating a set of key shares from the initial key via application of error correction code encoding. Each key share has a size which is independent of a size of the initial key. The technique further involves electronically storing each key share on a respective memory device of a set of memory devices (e.g., RFID tags). The initial key is reconstructable from a predetermined number of the key shares read from their respective memory devices to enable decryption of the encrypted data.

Key distribution in unidirectional channels with applications to RFID

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Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America

Bryan Jeffrey Parno