Entirely protecting operating systems against transient errors in space environment

TL;DR

This paper presents a mainly-software approach to fully protect unmodified operating systems on COTS hardware from transient errors in space environments, using a hypervisor-based technique with manageable overhead.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hypervisor-based software hardening method that ensures complete protection of operating systems against radiation-induced transient errors.

Findings

Implementation in a hypervisor demonstrates feasibility.

Overhead is approximately 200%, expected to decrease.

Complete protection of OS against transient errors achieved.

Abstract

In this article, we propose a mainly-software hardening technique to totally protect unmodified running operating systems on COTS hardware against transient errors in heavily radiation - flooded environment like high altitude space. The technique is currently being implemented in a hypervisor and allows to control the upper layers of the software stack (operating system and applications). The rest of the system, the hypervisor, will be protected by other means, thus resulting in a completely protected system against transient errors. The induced overhead turns around 200% but this is expected to decrease with future improvements.