Beyond the PDP-11: Architectural support for a memory-safe C abstract machine
- Submitting institution
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University of Cambridge
- Unit of assessment
- 11 - Computer Science and Informatics
- Output identifier
- 1851
- Type
- E - Conference contribution
- DOI
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10.1145/2694344.2694367
- Title of conference / published proceedings
- Proceedings of the Twentieth International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems
- First page
- 117
- Volume
- 50
- Issue
- 4
- ISSN
- 1523-2867
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- March
- Year of publication
- 2015
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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8
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Citation count
- 11
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This award-winning paper successfully argues that, despite the C abstract machine not being updated since C first ran on the PDP-11 in the 1970s, the C language can support fine-grained memory safety using the CHERI architecture. The is critical: Microsoft has shown that a lack of C-language memory safety underlies 70% of its security vulnerabilities. This work contributed to the broader CHERI programme resulting in futher grants (ECATS, SafeBet, IOSec, CAPcellerate, ChaOS) and establishment of the Digital Security by Design (DSbD) Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund: GBP70m from InnovateUK and GBP117m from industry, including Arm's industrial demonstrator of CHERI.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -