In 2017, DARPA supported the University of Michigan's Morpheus project with $3.6 million, four years later
The aim of the program was to test new systemssecurity based on hardware that could protect data regardless of how vulnerable the underlying software is. Morpheus was modeled to resemble a medical database full of software vulnerabilities - and yet no attack went through its defenses.
In fact, there is no such thing as software withouterrors, and in many cases these errors can be exploited by hackers. Software developers usually fix them when they find them, but often it doesn't happen until after the attack, and hackers just move on to the next vulnerability. The cycle continues in an endless arms race between hackers and developers.
More recently, computer scientists have begununderstand that equipment can play an important role in ensuring safety. To develop malware, hackers need to understand the microarchitecture of the processor so that they can figure out where to inject their malicious code. Locking the system down at the hardware level could potentially end the arms race once and for all.
It was the design philosophy behindMorpheus. Basically, the processor starts by encrypting key information such as the location, format, and content of the data. But this alone is not enough - a hacker can break this code within a few hours.
And in this Morpheus is unique - the system is randomthus shuffles the encryption every few hundred milliseconds. Thus, even if a hacker somehow manages to get an image of the entire processor, it will completely change before the attacker has a chance to act.
“Imagine trying to solve the Rubik's cube,which rebuilds every time you blink, ”says Todd Austin, lead researcher for the Morpheus Project. “This is what the hackers are struggling with in the case of Morpheus. It turns the computer into an insoluble puzzle. "
The main side effect is that Morpheus runs about 10% slower than an equivalent system could , but that's a pretty good compromise for a virtually unhackable CPU.In addition, the team states that further refinement could speed up the system.
The Morpheus team says the next step in the project will be to adapt the technology to use it to protect data in the cloud.
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