Defending Network-Centric Systems using Backdoors

As computing systems are increasingly depending on networking, they are also becoming more vulnerable to networking malfunctioning or misuse. Human intervention is not a solution when computer system monitoring and repairing must be done fast and reliably regardless of scale, networking availability, or system impairing. Future network-centric systems must be built around a defensive architecture that allows computers to take care of themselves. In this paper, we argue that the solution to building self-defending computer architectures is a Backdoor, which can support automated observation and intervention on a computer system’s memory without involving its operating system. Backdoors can therefore execute even when the functionality of the operating system of a critical system has been severely compromised and the system is no longer accessible through the primary network. Backdoors can be realized in hardware over a programmable network interface or in software over a virtual machine monitor.