A security retrofit of VM/370

Abstract

The VM/370 Security Retrofit Program is a continuing research and development initiative, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), with additional funding provided by the Canadian Department of National Defense. The program's primary goal is the security retrofit of a popular commercial operating system, VM/370. 1 Two approaches were originally planned: (1) the design of a feasible, formally verified security kernel to VM/370 and (2) a "hardening" effort to repair known VM/370 penetration weaknesses. It was subsequently decided not to proceed with the VM/370 hardening task because of the uncertainty of the end result: correction of known security flaws does not guarantee the absence of exploitable, but not yet detected, security flaws in the hardened system.