Operating system security a tutorial of current research

This tutorial is extracted from the recently completed monograph, Computer Security: Its Problems and Solutions [3], and is intended as a technical review of research in the areas of operating system security. Furthermore, it is intended to provide some assessment and evaluation of the work reviewed. Some projections and speculations of future activities in operating system research are also included. Because the tutorial is written for technical people who are not directly conducting such research, we have tried to present the review in an illustrative manner with intuitive and informal definitions of the necessary technology. The tutorial expounds the notion of surveillance in terms of logging and threat monitoring. It conceptualizes the problems and solutions of access control. To achieve security, the operating system relies on isolation. The tutorial points out the trade-off between security and cost of isolation. Furthermore, it illustrates two impor tant isolation methods. In order to provide security, the operating system must be designed and implemented as a secure system. The use of verification techniques for proving the correctness of secure operating system design and implementation is examined. When the operating system is large and the security requirements are elaborate, it may be necessary to concentrate the secure elements in a kernel. The notion of secure kernel is therefore examined. Other methods such as penetration tests are also examined An up-to-date bibliography since 1974 is included. To allow the readers to have a coherent coverage of various topics of operating system security, we have endeavored to give our personal views of various subject matters. We would like the reader to bear with us in the expression of these views.