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Protection and Security - CPU SCH

The document discusses protection and security mechanisms in operating systems. It describes how protection mechanisms like access controls and memory segmentation regulate access to resources and ensure processes only operate within their own address spaces. It also explains how security defenses like authentication and access groups protect against external attacks, theft of user information, and unauthorized access to data. Protection regulates resource access while security aims to defend the system from internal and external threats.

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22 views2 pages

Protection and Security - CPU SCH

The document discusses protection and security mechanisms in operating systems. It describes how protection mechanisms like access controls and memory segmentation regulate access to resources and ensure processes only operate within their own address spaces. It also explains how security defenses like authentication and access groups protect against external attacks, theft of user information, and unauthorized access to data. Protection regulates resource access while security aims to defend the system from internal and external threats.

Uploaded by

Aarya
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Protection and Security

Protection
 A protection-oriented system provides a means to distinguish between authorized
and unauthorized usage.
 Protection is any mechanism for controlling the access of processes or users to the
resources defined by a computer system. This mechanism must provide means to
specify the controls to be imposed and to enforce the controls.
 If a computer system has multiple users and allows the concurrent execution of
multiple processes, then access to data must be regulated.
 For that purpose, mechanisms ensure that files, memory segments, CPU, and other
resources can be operated on by only those processes that have gained proper
authorization from the operating system.
 Memory-addressing hardware ensures that a process can execute only within its
own address space.
 The timer ensures that no process can gain control of the CPU without eventually
relinquishing control.
 Device-control registers are not accessible to users, so the integrity of the various
peripheral devices is protected.

Security

 A system can have adequate protection but still be prone to failure and allow
inappropriate access.
 Consider a user whose authentication information (her means of identifying herself
to the system) is stolen. Her data could be copied or deleted, even though file and
memory protection are working.
 It is the job of security to defend a system from external and internal attacks.
 Such attacks spread across a huge range and include viruses and worms, denial-
ofservice attacks (which use all of a system’s resources and so keep legitimate users
out of the system), identity theft, and theft of service (unauthorized use of a system).
 Prevention of some of these attacks is considered an operating-system function on
some systems, while other systems leave it to policy or additional software.
 Protection and security require the system to be able to distinguish among all
its users.
 Most operating systems maintain a list of user names and associated user
identifiers (user IDs).
 These numerical IDs are unique, one per user.
 When a user logs in to the system, the authentication stage determines the
appropriate user ID for the user.
 That user ID is associated with all of the user’s processes and threads.
 When an ID needs to be readable by a user, it is translated back to the user
name via the user name list.
 In some circumstances, we wish to distinguish among sets of users rather than
individual users.
 For example, the owner of a file on a UNIX system may be allowed to issue
all operations on that file, whereas a selected set of users may be allowed only
to read the file.
 To accomplish this, we need to define a group name and the set of users
belonging to that group.
 Group functionality can be implemented as a system-wide list of group names
and group identifiers.

Protection and Security Mechanisms


1. Dual Mode Operation
2. Registers to limit process in own address space
3. I/O Instructions are kept in supervisory mode
4. Timer to protect monopolising the system

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