SENTRIES As Building Blocks in COTS Systems / D. Siewiorek / N000149610202

Project Objectives:

• Extend Sentry mechanisms to include more dependability techniques and include real time systems.
• Inject Stress to verify Sentry properties.

Scientific Questions

• Develop an integrated theoretical and practical framework to add dependability, observability, and controllability to legacy COTS systems.

Project Approaches

• Sentries as middleware providing observability, controllability.
• Robustness Benchmarks injecting faults at Application Program Interface (API).

Empirical Observations

• Improved robustness of HPUX by trapping parameters that Robustness Benchmarks caused unmodified operating systems to crash
• Both Sentry and API fault injection required since design errors in software between the API and micro-kernal in some operating systems may not be triggered by Sentry fault injection
• Assertions detect fault inducing parameters
• Robustness benchmarks uncover vulnerabilities in COTS real time operating systems

Carnegie Mellon University / ICES: D. Siewiorek