Spider Goat: Transactional Memory for Security

Speaker/Bio

Tali Moreshet is a Senior Lecturer and Associate Chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Boston University.

Abstract

Modern Intel CPUs support the detection and resolution of memory conflicts between multiple threads that access the same data: This is called Transactional Synchronisation Extension (TSX). Hardware-supported TSX technology helps avoid expensive software locks. Instead, TSX can automatically detect read/write memory conflicts and roll back corresponding RAM changes. We will show how TSX capabilities can be used for security. A special security thread reads protected RAM cells (data or code) in TSX mode; any other (potentially malicious) thread writing to the same cells will cause the CPU to abort the transaction.

References

• https://www.blackhat.com/us-14/archives.html