Prof. Gernot Heiser

"Towards Trustworthy Embedded Systems"

(Vortrag im Rahmen der "Distinguished Lecture Series" des "Max Planck Instituts für Software-Systeme")

Embedded systems are increasingly used in circumstances where people's lives or valuable assets are at stake, hence they should be trustworthy - safe, secure, reliable. True trustworthiness can only be achieved through mathematical proof of the relevant properties. Yet, real-world software systems are far too complex to make their formal verification tractable in the foreseeable future. The Trustworthy Systems project at NICTA has formally proved the functional correctness as well as other security-relevant properties of the seL4 microkernel. This talk will provide an overview of the principles underlying seL4, and the approach taken in its design, implementation and formal verification. It will also discuss on-going activities and our strategy for achieving the ultimate goal of system-wide security guarantees.