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A study of initialization in Linux and OpenBSD
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Source ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review archive
Volume 39 ,  Issue 2  (April 2005) table of contents
Pages: 79 - 93  
Year of Publication: 2005
ISSN:0163-5980
Authors
Catherine Dodge  Naval Postgraduate School
Cynthia Irvine  Naval Postgraduate School
Thuy Nguyen  Naval Postgraduate School
Publisher
ACM  New York, NY, USA
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ABSTRACT

The code that initializes a system can be notoriously difficult to understand. In secure systems, initialization is critical for establishing a starting state that is secure. This paper explores two architectures used for bringing an operating system to its initial state, once the operating system gains control from the boot loader. Specifically, the ways in which the OpenBSD and Linux operating systems handle initialization are dissected.


REFERENCES

Note: OCR errors may be found in this Reference List extracted from the full text article. ACM has opted to expose the complete List rather than only correct and linked references.

 
1
Dodge, C., Recommendations for Secure Initialization Routines in Operating Systems. Masters thesis, Naval Postgraduate School, 2004.
 
2
Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation, Part 1: Introduction and general model. Version 2.2, Revision 256. http://www.commoncriteriaportal.org/public/files/ccpartlv2.2.pdf. January 2004.
 
3
LILO (The Linux Loader), http://freshmeat.net/projects/lilo/. Accessed May 2004.
 
4
GRUB (Grand Unified Boot Loader), http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/. Accessed June 2004.
 
5
Okuji, Y. K, Ford, B., Boleyn, E. S., Ishiguro, K., The Multiboot Specification, Free Software Foundation, 2002. Available from http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/multiboot/multiboot.pdf. Accessed May 2004.
 
6
Mach operating system project, http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/mach/public/www/mach.html. Accessed November 2004.
 
7
Fiasco microkernel, http://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/fiasco/. Accessed October 2004.
 
8
Intel Corporation, IA-32 Intel Architecture Software Developer's Manual, Volume 3: System Programming Guide, http://www.intel.com/design/pentium4/manuals/index_new.htm. Accessed May 2004.
 
9
OpenBSD Security, http://www.openbsd.org/security.html. Accessed June 2004.
 
10
Intel Corporation, Nov. 20 1997. "Invalid Instruction Erratum Overview" Available from http://support.intel.com/support/processors/pentium/ppiie/. Accessed September 2004.
 
11
 
12
Tool Interface Standard (TIS) Committee, Executable and Linking Format (ELF) Specification, Version 1.2, http://www.x86.org/ftp/manuals/tools/elf.pdf. Accessed August 2004.
 
13
Intel Corporation, IA-32 Intel Architecture Software Developer's Manual, Volume 2: Instruction Set Reference, http://www.intel.com/design/pentium4/manuals/index_new.htm. Accessed May 2004.
 
14
Free Software Foundation, GCC 3.4.1 Manual, http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-3.4.1/gcc/. Accessed July 2004.


Collaborative Colleagues:
Catherine Dodge: colleagues
Cynthia Irvine: colleagues
Thuy Nguyen: colleagues