Finished Projects
Trusted Mach
Information Security for Commercial and Government Applications
Description:
The Trusted Mach (TMach®) system is a trusted software environment
designed for the B3 security level. Using the TMach system, users can operate
standard applications, with no modifications, in a high-assurance multilevel secure
environment.
The TMach system provides one of the highest levels of trust on a broad spectrum of computer hardware. The TMach system is personality neutral, thus providing a base for multiple operating system interfaces. The operating system personality itself, with all of its commercial applications, is outside of the Trusted Computing Base (TCB). This radically reduces system development costs and times for providing high-performance trusted applications.
Architecture:
The TMach system architecture consists of a kernel and a set of cooperating servers.
The TMach kernel provides a few simple, but powerful, abstractions that enable
familiar operating systems to be supported. The kernel abstractions also provide
the basic protection mechanisms that permit trusted servers to implement the security
features and functions necessary to implement the TMach security policy.
The set of servers is divided into trusted and non-trusted servers. The kernel and the trusted servers, in addition to the hardware, comprise the TMach TCB. The TCB provides a personality-neutral set of operating system services. Non-trusted servers use TCB services to provide an operating system personality to the user. Each non-trusted server runs at a single security label.
By running interacting applications on non-trusted servers grouped into different security domains, it is possible to use TMach to mediate information exchange among these applications in a trusted and controlled fashion, allowing inter-domain interactions among critical applications to in a highly-trusted manner. This architectural characteristic provides the basis for applications such as secure web servers, file servers and application front ends in potentially hostile environments.
Platforms:
TMach runs on 486 and Pentium based computers, with a Unix (OSF) personality.