RED BALLOON SECURITY, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: The goal of our work is to defend (legacy) embedded systems firmware with entirely new def

Description

The goal of our work is to defend (legacy) embedded systems firmware with entirely new defensive capabilities proven up in prior DARPA-sponsored research at Columbia University. We invented the Software Symbiote, a host-based defensive technology that injects intrusion detection functionality within the firmware of a (legacy) embedded system and that senses the unauthorized modification of the device firmware. FRAK, a firmware reverse engineering and analysis console, developed by Red Balloon Security under a prior DARPA Cyber Fast Track SBIR Phase 1 contract, provides the means of injecting protective Symbiote technology into any proprietary firmware. Symbiote payloads are presently designed to perform identification of firmware vulnerabilities immediately upon a successful exploitation and firmware modification. However,"repair payloads"that excise the malicious code deposited by a real attack, and replacement of the vulnerable code segment to avoid re-exploitation in an endless DOS loop are yet to be fully explored and demonstrated. The proposed Phase 1 SBIR work is thus focused on the design and specification of the repair of the exploited firmware and its means of being delivered to arbitrary embedded devices via a FRAK-enabled environment.