A high assurance virtualization platform for ARMv8

Abstract

This paper presents the first results from the ongoing research project HASPOC, developing a high assurance virtualization platform for the ARMv8 CPU architecture. Formal verification at machine code level guarantees information isolation between different guest systems (e.g. OSs) running on the platform. To use the platform in networking scenarios, we allow guest systems to securely communicate with each other via platform-provided communication channels and to take exclusive control of peripherals for communication with the outside world. The isolation is shown to be formally equivalent to that of guests executing on physically separate platforms with dedicated communication channels crossing the air-gap. Common Criteria (CC) assurance methodology is applied by preparing the CC documentation required for an EAL6 evaluation of products using the platform. Besides the hypervisor, a secure boot component is included and verified to ensure system integrity.