2017/01/06 by Yongwang Zhao, Zhao, Yongwang, David Sanan +6 · 2 voices
Computer Science · Engineering · #Distributed systems and fault tolerance #Radiation Effects in Electronics #Security and Verification in Computing #cs.SE
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1701.01535
openalex publication_date 2017/01/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Separation kernels provide temporal/spatial separation and controlled information flow to their hosted applications. They are introduced to decouple the analysis of applications in partitions from the analysis of the kernel itself. More than 20 implementations of separation kernels have been developed and widely applied in critical domains, e.g., avionics/aerospace, military/defense, and medical devices. Formal methods are mandated by the security/safety certification of separation kernels and have been carried out since this concept emerged. However, this field lacks a survey to systematically study, compare, and analyze related work. On the other hand, high-assurance separation kernels by formal methods still face big challenges. In this paper, an analytical framework is first proposed to clarify the functionalities, implementations, properties and standards, and formal methods application of separation kernels. Based on the proposed analytical framework, a taxonomy is designed according to formal methods application, functionalities, and properties of separation kernels. Research works in the literature are then categorized and overviewed by the taxonomy. In accordance with the analytical framework, a comprehensive analysis and discussion of related work are presented. Finally, four challenges and their possible technical directions for future research are identified, e.g. specification bottleneck, multicore and concurrency, and automation of full formal verification.