Secure Modular Hardware Applications With Container Isolation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing hardware applications face a dilemma between security and genericity, with monolithic designs offering high security but low versatility, and versatile designs providing flexibility but compromised security, making it difficult to create a modular and secure solution suitable for diverse business applications.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a minimalist and generic operating system capable of managing containers, along with a container management system, to deploy business software components in isolated containers, ensuring security and versatility without extensive hardware resources.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a monolithic hardware application design is used, then security is improved by reducing the attack surface, but versatility deteriorates as the system cannot be modified to perform additional tasks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the hardware application into isolated containers, each performing a specific task. These containers are separated by virtualization boundaries, allowing the system to maintain security through isolation while enabling versatility by adding or removing containers as needed. The containerization approach divides the monolithic system into modular units that can be independently managed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamic container management, allowing containers to be created, modified, and destroyed at runtime. This dynamic capability enables the system to adapt to changing requirements while maintaining security boundaries. The virtualization layer provides flexible resource allocation and container lifecycle management, resolving the contradiction between fixed security boundaries and dynamic versatility.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a versatile hardware application design is used, then adaptability is improved allowing additional tasks, but security deteriorates due to increased attack surface
Solution Approach 1:
Each container is segmented as an isolated execution environment with its own namespace and resource constraints. This segmentation ensures that even as the system becomes more versatile with multiple containers, the security attack surface remains controlled because each container is independently secured and isolated from others and the host system.
Solution Approach 2:
The virtualization layer acts as an intermediary between the containers and the physical hardware resources. This intermediary enforces security policies, manages resource allocation, and provides isolation guarantees, allowing the system to offer versatility through multiple containers while maintaining security through the mediating virtualization layer that controls all interactions.
3Adaptability or versatility
If containerization is implemented to improve modularity, then versatility is improved, but device complexity increases due to additional virtualization layers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal container runtime environment that can execute multiple container formats and support various workloads through a single standardized interface. This universality reduces complexity by providing a unified container management approach rather than requiring separate infrastructure for different container types, making the modular system easier to manage despite the added virtualization layer.
Data Source
Figure 1
AI summary
The invention relates to a method for manufacturing a specific secure and modular business hardware application, comprising: a selection step: of a hardware computer integrated into a closed case which isolates it from the outside so as to make the hardware resources of this hardware computer structurally non-extendable because they are made inaccessible without damage from outside the case, of an operating system to manage containers in a generic and minimalist way, associated with the computer, of an application development kit, associated with the operating system and the computer, of container models, of specific business software components, a deployment step of the specific business software components in containers instantiated on the basis of the container models.