Gail Kaiser
Columbia University, NY·Computer Science
Containers bundle an application with everything it needs so that it runs the same way on any computer. Today their security relies on the operating system (OS), which is the trusted computing base (TCB) that enforces their protections.
- Fields
Computer Science
Engineering
- Topics
computer security
systems security
containers
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Sep 2028
What they work on
- Design a container architecture with a tiny trusted computing base that protects application registers, memory and files from a compromised operating system, without changing application source code.
- Support system calls and libraries that exchange data with protected applications while keeping that data confidential and preventing tampering.
- Demonstrate protection against real attacks, including side-channel attacks that hypervisors and standard containers cannot stop, while measuring performance overhead on real application workloads.
More about the research
But large operating systems like Linux contain many vulnerabilities and many places for malicious software to hide. This project asks whether sensitive user data can stay protected even if the OS itself, or third-party software, has been compromised.
Why it matters
Mobile, web and desktop applications could keep users' sensitive data safe even when the computer or the network has been compromised by attackers. Because existing apps would not need to change, this protection could reach ordinary users without any extra effort from them or from software developers.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Ning Zhang
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Computer Science·Early-career
Provide guaranteed computing and I/O availability inside trusted execution environments despite an untrusted operating system, using the predictable timing of real-time cyber-physical systems to keep the trusted code small.
Berk Gulmezoglu
Iowa State University, IA·Computer Science
Develop automated methods to discover and describe how little-studied low-level hardware behaviors in virtual and augmented reality devices can create side-channels that leak private user data.
Radu Sion
Stony Brook University, NY·Computer Science
Design plausibly deniable storage systems that hide the existence of data from a multi-snapshot attacker, one who inspects a device repeatedly, while holding the user's devices and credentials.
The school
Columbia University: 89 labs on PI Pages, $1.4B a year on research, 625 research doctorates a year.
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