Segregated Gateway Architecture for Cross-Domain Security
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing security architectures struggle to enable bidirectional communication between domains with different security levels while maintaining high assurance and efficient resource utilization, especially in embedded environments, due to the complexity of implementing models like Bell-La Padula and Biba integrity models simultaneously.
Innovation Solution
A gateway architecture with physically segregated protocol adapters and a security module on a separate hosting platform, using a simplified internal protocol and decomposed functional blocks for secure bidirectional data flow along unidirectional paths, allowing secure communication between domains with different security levels.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multiple applications with different security levels are hosted on the same physical system, then resource utilization efficiency is improved, but the risk of error propagation and security breaches increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system is segmented into multiple isolated execution environments (secure domain and non-secure domain) that run on the same physical system. Each domain has its own virtualized execution space, preventing error propagation while allowing resource sharing. The secure domain isolates critical applications from potential threats in the non-secure domain.
Solution Approach 2:
A gateway acts as an intermediary between the secure domain and non-secure domain, controlling all communication between them. The gateway enforces security policies and filters data exchanges, allowing resource utilization across domains while maintaining security boundaries and preventing unauthorized access or error propagation.
2Reliability
If strict runtime environment segregation is implemented between applications, then security assurance is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway serves multiple functions simultaneously: it acts as a protocol adapter, security enforcement point, and communication controller. By consolidating these functions into a single multi-functional component, the system achieves strict runtime segregation without proportionally increasing overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses homogeneous security mechanisms across all domains, with the gateway applying consistent security policies and protocols regardless of the specific domain or application involved. This uniform approach simplifies the security architecture compared to implementing domain-specific security solutions.
3Reliability
If complex security models like Bell-La Padula and Biba integrity models are implemented simultaneously, then security coverage is improved, but implementation complexity and certification difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The complex security models are extracted and implemented specifically within the gateway's security module, rather than being distributed throughout the entire system. This concentrates the complexity into a single manageable component that can be certified independently, while the rest of the system benefits from simplified security requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The gateway serves as an intermediary that implements security models only where needed for cross-domain communication. By placing security enforcement at the boundary between domains rather than within each domain, the system achieves comprehensive security coverage while minimizing the overall complexity of security implementation.
Data Source
AI summary
A gateway having an architecture authorizing bidirectional communication between applications located in different domains and presenting a high assurance level of protection. The gateway interconnects a first and second domain. The gateway comprises an internal protocol, first and second protocol adapters hosted within the first and second domains and configured to make a conversion between application data formatted according to an applicative protocol relative to the two domains and gateway data formatted according to the gateway internal protocol, and a security module hosted on a separate platform to communicate with the first and second protocol adapters via first and second data links according to the gateway internal protocol. The first and second protocol adapters and security module are each physically segregated and the security module comprises functional blocs configured to authorize secure bidirectional flow of gateway data along two different and separate unidirectional paths between the two protocol adapters.