Wind River Blog Network

Northrop Grumman X-47B UCAS-D Running on Wind River VxWorks Catapults from Aircraft Carrier

By Chip Downing

Today, the Northrop Grumman X-47B unmanned aircraft achieved a successful catapult launch from the deck of the USS George H.W. Bush carrier, the first of its kind in aviation history.  This marks a very proud day for Wind River knowing that our VxWorks real-time operating system is a key technology for this aircraft, developed as part of the Navy’s Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D) program.

Northrop Grumman's X-47B is a tailless, strike fighter-sized unmanned aircraft currently under development for carrier operations. VxWorks serves as the foundation for the Common Core System, the backbone of UCAS-D computers, networks, and interfacing electronics on the X-47B. Built on VxWorks, Northrop Grumman engineers were able to rapidly create, deploy and maintain the safety-critical control system. 

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Securing Critical Infrastructure with MILS

By Paul Chen

On February 12, the White House released the Presidential Policy Directive 21 (PPD-21), Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience. The DHS website describes PPD-21 as “advancing a national policy to strengthen and maintain secure, functioning, and resilient critical infrastructure.” Sixteen different critical infrastructure sectors are identified, including: Chemical, Communications, Energy, Financial Services, Healthcare and Public Health, Food and Agriculture, Nuclear Reactors, Transportation, and Water and Wastewater Systems.

On the same day PPD-21 was released, President Obama also signed Executive Order 13636 for “Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity.” The Executive Order directs NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) to develop a framework for “reducing cyber risks to critical infrastructure,” for which they have issued an RFI and plan a workshop in late May.

And on March 26, the BSI (Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik, the German Federal Office for Information Security) published the Protection Profile for the Gateway of a Smart Metering System. Such devices will securely collect, process, and store information from smart meters, adding security to smart electricity distribution grids. The protection profile notes that the threat from a remote cyberattack is much higher than that from a local physical attack, since the attacker in network has the potential to compromise not just one, but many components of the infrastructure, or even the corresponding grid.

These developments highlight the focus on improving critical infrastructure security as attacks from cyber-terrorism have increased over the last decade and, alarmingly, in the past year on power, water, and nuclear systems. A recent report states that, indeed, most cyber-attacks now target critical infrastructure, moving “away from hacking and financially motivated crime” to attacks to “deny, disrupt, and destroy” service. For most of us, even the most destructive cyber-attacks like Stuxnet are fairly remote and don’t impact us; but if critical infrastructure services are denied, disrupted, or destroyed, cyber-attacks could become devastatingly personal.

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Serving Windows Files from a Simics Quick-Start Platform

By Jakob Engblom

Windows file sharing has always felt a bit magical to me. I use it all the time, certainly, but I never quite understood how it worked; it was just this big chunk of Microsoft protocol that felt like it really did not want to talk to other types of operating systems. Sure, I have used the open-source "samba" server for a long time with great success… but it always seemed to suffer from issues with access rights (probably the fault of me and server setup and mixing Unix and Windows accounts, not a fault in the server itself).

With this background, I was really delighted and surprised  when  I managed to almost effortlessly get a Simics target to share and serve files to my Windows host. A big-endian Power Architecture QSP target at that, running VxWorks, how cool isn’t that? The key to the puzzle was the Visuality NQ Server from Visuality Systems Ltd. in Israel. It just worked, and let me try some interesting and educational setups.

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The Advent of Multi-core MILS

By Paul Parkinson

It has been a rather long time since my previous blog post. I intended to post a blog before the holidays regarding our partner Curtiss-Wright's announcement about VxWorks MILS support on the VPX6-187, but I simply ran out of time! So here it is as my first blog post of 2013.

The Curtiss-Wright new release was actually quite a game changer. To the casual reader, it may just appear to be about the release of another board support package (BSP) on a leading-edge COTS processor card, but the fact that this BSP supports multi-core for a MILS architecture is what makes this announcement so significant.

When the MILS software architecture was proposed in 1984 by the computer scientist Dr. John Rushby, microprocessors at the time were inherently single-core, and computing performance advances were being driven by clock speed increases and die size, at a rate following Moore's Law.

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Medical Device Security

By Jeff Fortin

A recent study published by GAO caused quite a bit of uproar over medical device security. The GAO declared in its report [read more] that the FDA has not put enough oversight in the premarket approval (PMA) of certain medical devices that are susceptible to threats. In the report the GEO referred to an experiment described in the 2008 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy. The experiment was conducted by a number of experts in security, medicine and engineering. They demonstrated the potential for a hacker to expose patient information as well as interfere with the correct operation of a medical device. The FDA has agreed to the GAOs insights – however pointed out that there have been no real world threats that have been reported to date.  According to the FDA, it did consider unintentional threats for information security, but did not consider information security risks from intentional threats until recently. In summary, the HHS – governing body for the FDA, concurred with the GAO recommendations and have initiated activity in this direction.  Medical device manufacturers must take the threat of security seriously.

Of all medical devices, devices that are implantable, portable or used in a home health scenario represent a growing concern for security and information privacy. I refer to these classes of devices as embedded medical devices. Developers and manufacturers of embedded medical devices are increasingly exposed to security risks as these devices become more complex and also connected to open networks. The good news is that in responding to this threat they need not operate in a vacuum nor do they need to re-invent the wheel. Best practices exist in other industries that can be leveraged by medical device manufactures. Of them the most straightforward is to design your products with security in mind. In other word, design for security. Here are a few things to think about when you design your medical devices.

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Test Management 5.0: Extending testing to Android, security and beyond

By Ido Sarig

Today we announced the latest  version of Wind River Test Management, which takes software test optimization to the next level. 

With this release, we have unified our testing solutions for VxWorks, Linux and Android under one umbrella. All the capabilities of Wind River Framework for Automated Software Testing (FAST), our solution for Android compatibility testing, have now been merged into Wind River Test Management. This includes all the ready-to-run test assets, more than 26,000 tests in all, which are now available as Wind River Test Management for Android, with support for the latest version of Android  – Jelly Bean – already available!

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Guest Blog: Qt Commercial 4.8.3 Released with Official Support for VxWorks

By Tuukka Turunen, Digia

This week, together with the Qt Project, Digia released version 4.8.3 of Qt Commercial. Developed together with Wind River, it now includes official support for VxWorks, Wind River's leading real-time operating system found in about one billion devices spanning a wide range of industries -- and can also be found in outer space!

Qt is an excellent tool to create interactive and dynamic user interfaces for VxWorks and the combination of an officially supported platform for commercial Qt licensees is a big step in the evolution of the product. Many of the improvements are also made available to open-source Qt users, though VxWorks itself is not available under an open-source license.

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First Line of Defense

By Ka Kay Achacoso

Designing security into a device requires an understanding of the nature of the attacker.  The cost of security implementation, including  acquiring the technology carrying out the processes, scales up with attacker sophistication.  A rule of thumb is to make the device tampering cost higher than the benefits gained from a security breach.   

Wind River’s VxWorks real-time operating system platforms come with a set of simple security measures that protect the VxWorks applications against some clever hackers.  At the Intel Developers Forum (IDF) in San Francisco next week, we will be demonstrating several layers of protection that come with the operating system (booth No. 400).

In this blog post I will outline a few simple security measures, already available in the VxWorks platform, that deter attacks on the VxWorks system. 

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MSL: How Big Is It?

By Mike Deliman

I’ve been asked here and there “Just how big is this MSL thing?”

It’s a question I can give several answers to, depending on what the asker means.  In physical terms, you could ride on it.  Here is a good example…in this photo of a worker and MSL, you can see the cruise shell is large enough to house a small couch with more than one person sitting on it.  The rover itself is quite large, I’d imagine good comparisons would be something on the order of a ride-on tractor-mower. 

But that isn’t really the only answer.  In scientific terms, this is huge.  This rover is a well-equipped geological laboratory on wheels.  It carries equipment every high-school and university would be proud to have available.  Laser spectrometer, chemical analyzers, close-up and long-distance cameras, not to mention an advanced autonomous robot running it all.  Any of these tools would be excellent for investigating or teaching/learning about the earth.

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All Your Mars are Belong to US!

By Mike Deliman

It's time to celebrate. We have returned to Mars with the most complex roving robotic laboratory ever sent to another planet. We have demonstrated and proved the Sky Crane concept, which opens doors onto other worlds that we have never had before. We can successfully deliver 1 metric ton to the surface of Mars.

This is an achievement beyond words. A new day is dawning on Mars, a day marked with the ability to achieve incredible scientific goals. A team of over 7000 individuals made this happen. A true testament to humankind. None of these contributors could have done this without the support of their families and significant others.  And I am extremely proud to work for Wind River, a company whose technology helped make all of this possible.

I'm a California boy. It takes someone very special to have this kind of draw, to pull me to Indiana.  Here we are.  It’s late.  This is a historic evening.

All times in Central time (Valparaiso, Indiana):

10:30pm - we tuned in to the press transmissions on both NASA-TV and USTREAM on JPL channel 3. We spent the next several hours toggling between the audio feeds, glued to the monitor.

10:40 pm - DSN ready to relay signals. EDL team is getting setup. EDL "tone screens" were being finalized. Chatter in the flight control room was muted.

10:52 pm - Mars View from MSL is about 20 degrees - she's getting close.

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Complexity

By Mike Deliman

This afternoon I watched the press conferences for Mars Science Laboratory “Curiosity” that were hosted by NASA/JPL from Pasadena, Ca.  These conferences were broadcast over NASA-TV, both on the cable/satellite channels and over the web.  If you haven’t seen the Seven Minutes Video I encourage you to watch it.

Various scientists, directors and managers of the project discussed various aspects of the mission, including discussing how the craft does what it’s designed to.  The biggest message I carry away from today’s two conferences is “Complexity”.  This is by far the most complex robotic probe ever launched to space, perhaps the most complex robotic probe mission ever.

If you watch the video, you will notice that during the landing, the probe plummets through the atmosphere like a well-guided rock.  This is literally what it is doing – falling like a rock that knows how to keep itself upright.  It manages to do this by using guidance rockets, a heat shield with a “just right” shape, and weights that help keep one side tilted slightly towards the ground.  While it’s in this configuration, the guidance rockets make minute adjustments as needed, keeping the probe on course.  This precision guided entry is a large part of how Curiosity is able to make the landing ellipse small.  This whole phase is a series of fantastic engineering achievements.  It is tied in history to the Apollo reentry methods, where we brought astronauts back to Earth, safely.

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Seven Minutes

By Mike Deliman

This week, NASA hosted the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) scientists in charge of the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, for a pre-landing press conference.  The landing sequences, called “ED&L” – Entry, Descent, and Landing – are the most action packed and critical operations other than the initial launch.  Pete Theisinger has described the EDL sequence as “7 minutes of terror.”

This stage of exploration is similar to that of other landers NASA has sent – Mars Pathfinder, Mars Exploration Rovers, and Mars Polar Lander all survived their landings on the red planet after their 7 minutes of EDL terror.  It was these experiences that led Pete to this description.

The NASA/JPL press conference was about an hour long, and packed full of information.  The long and short of it is that we have made giant strides in advancing the technology of placing payloads on the surface of Mars, and the science returned so far has drastically changed our understanding of the red planet, and of planetary evolution in general.

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The Role of Tools in Improving Embedded Software Security / Part 1: Automation is the Key

By Bill Graham

Security Vulnerabilities are Expensive

Shipping security vulnerabilities in a finished product and having them discovered or worse, exploited, is a very expensive proposition for embedded device vendors. As I’ve discussed in an earlier post, security defects are much more expensive to patch and fix the later they are discovered. If you’re lucky to catch a vulnerability during development, you can likely save your company and project thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, security vulnerabilities are expensive and costly not only in dollars but in reputation and customer satisfaction.

On average, a vendor loses around 0.6 percent value in stock price when a vulnerability is reported. This is equivalent to a loss in market capitalization values of $0.86 billion per vulnerability announcement.  --Telang & Wattal 2007

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The New FACE of Avionics

By Chip Downing

Earlier this year, Wind River announced its support of the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) technical standard, which hopes to resolve two fundamental problems with military procurements.

First, current aviation systems are typically developed for a unique set of requirements by a single vendor for a single aircraft, resulting in limited portability of software components, increased costs, and creating barriers to competition within and across airborne systems.

Second, the military aviation community has not created standardized architectural and software interface standards to sufficiently enable portability of software components across DoD aviation systems.  Commercial aerospace suppliers have standardized on open common core platforms based upon ARINC 653, which is a standard API for integrated modular avionics (IMA), but this has simply not occurred in military avionics systems.

The FACE technical standard will create an open, modular, multi-vendor software environment enabling portability and reuse of software components across multiple programs and platforms.  Combining this technical standard with a the FACE Business Guide will expand the selection options for military software components, reduce up-front procurement costs, reduce system integration cost and risk, and reduce upgrade and technical refresh costs.

To read the full blog post visit Military Embedded Systems

Open source in Medical Devices: Part of the Cure or Part of the Disease?

By Ido Sarig

The Economist recently published a very interesting article on the merits of open source in medical device development, which raises some questions and sparks an important discussion. 

In general, it is more common to see open source adoption in non-regulated industries. However, we are seeing it more and more in regulated industries primarily because it encourages rapid innovation at far lower costs.  That said, it is important to caution those in the regulated industries (aerospace & defense, medical, industrial automation, energy, automotive) towards embracing open source concepts without investing in lifecycle management tools to support the building of safe and effective devices.  [Proprietary software on the other hand, is a better fit for companies that design devices in environments where changes are few and far in between. Proprietary software also enables better control of the ecosystem, the lower the stack you go.]

As the Economist puts it, “exposing a design results in safe products.”  Maybe…Designing a device or ecosystem with safety in mind, results in safer products, hence the need for “design for safety.”  The FDA mandates a safe and effective design for any devices that gets approved in the US market -- this requires companies to have better control of their ecosystem.  Done proactively, this is an efficient method for product development; however, done reactively, companies incur a lot of costs and overheads trying to make open source fit.

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Improving Embedded Operating System Security Part 6: Harden the System Against Attack

By Bill Graham

In the previous posts I’ve discussed various steps that need to be taken in order to improve security, but these are all preventative measures that require validation before a device is ready for market. Enabling the security features of your embedded OS is the first step, but it’s important to test the system continuously throughout development. The importance of security-focused testing can’t be over-emphasized. Testing for security is a different activity than functional testing since the aim is to find and exploit vulnerabilities, often outside the realm of normal operation. Test automation is essential in order to do efficient and thorough security testing. Take a look at a post on this from my colleague Ido Sarig.

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Improving Embedded Operating System Security Part 5: Securing Code and Data

By Bill Graham

Secure the Boot and Execution

Embedded systems are vulnerable at boot time. For example, it’s common for hobbyists to re-flash consumer products’ firmware to change the way it operates. However, malicious attacks on device boot up and operation are undesirable for mission critical systems. In addition, devices often allow updates via web interfaces or other remote access creating a serious security threat if abused. Securing the boot image is an important step to securing your device. Trusted boot images are cryptographically signed with an identifier that the hardware recognizes as the only acceptable signature for execution.  An example of this is a Trusted Platform Module (TPM), which provides hardware support for encryption, key storage and random number generation. Moreover, a TPM can provide a trusted key value for the device hardware and software. A device without its TPM wouldn’t start or if the software and hardware configuration didn’t match expected values. Any tampering with code or hardware prevents device operation. For example TPM support is common in many PC motherboards (although likely not used much in consumer use.)

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Improving Embedded Operating System Security Part 4: Partition Systems to Protect Essential Components

By Bill Graham

An effective security technique is to separate different major components of a system into partitions. In some cases these partitions are physical, i.e., separate devices with physical separation. With modern virtualization technologies these partitions can be virtual, in software, on the same device or processor. An example of this would be combining a general purpose OS (GPOS) such as Microsoft Windows or Linux and an RTOS such as VxWorks on the same device but each runs in its own virtual environment. In this way security attacks and vulnerabilities on the GPOS do not affect the mission critical control done in the RTOS. Similarly, the GUI and remote access for a device can be in one partition and the control systems in another.  Remote attacks that deny service or crash the GUI partition do not affect the control systems.

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What is the Real Impact of DO-178C and ED-12C?

By Joe Wlad

DO-178C and ED-12C are now released.  What does this mean for Wind River and its customers?

Now that RCTA DO-178 and its European equivalent, EUROCAE ED-12, have been updated after nearly twenty years, many are wondering, what is the impact to Wind River and our customers?  We’ve provided our customers with products and services based on DO-178B and ED-12B guidelines for over 10 years and have deployed certified VxWorks solutions on over 250 aircraft programs.  With the arrival of DO-178C and ED-12C it’s really business as usual for Wind River and we will incrementally adopt the standard in our future certification evidence offerings. Yes, the new release of DO-178 and ED-12 compel many to ask questions about how we comply, what our roadmap for approval is, and how we plan to support our customers now and in the future.

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Avionics 2012 Conference

By Paul Parkinson

It's been a long time since my previous blog, as unfortunately I've been engrossed in a number of projects!

However, I have just got time to mention that I'm really looking forward to the Avionics Europe conference in Munich on 21-22 March. The conference programme is pretty packed, covering cockpit avionics and technologies for civil and military aircraft; and aircraft, spacecraft and UAV sensor payloads, diagnostics and certification.

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Improving Embedded Operating System Security Part 3: Secure Your Network Communication

By Bill Graham

Many security issues with embedded systems stem from their connection via a network with access open to a large population (enterprise network) or even directly to the Internet.  Also, devices designed for small local private networks are increasingly connected to large corporate networks or the Internet directly.

It’s safer to assume that all external connections to your device are insecure – proliferation of your device to your customer base may go beyond your perceived use cases. In other words, expect the worst when it comes to network communication security – don’t assume the data you transmit is not sensitive or not of interest to outside parties. The best practice is to secure all communications in and out of your device (at a minimum make it optional).

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Improving Embedded Operating System Security Part 2: Enable a More Secure Configuration

By Bill Graham

 Despite the hype surrounding the state of embedded security, many of the runtime platforms that these systems are based on can be made more secure through proper configuration. Moreover, it’s important to keep the platform updated since the RTOS likely has many security vulnerabilities fixed that were present in older versions.  Default configurations for embedded operating systems are often tuned for performance and memory footprint and have various features off by default.

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Improving Embedded Operating System Security

By Bill Graham

Security has quickly risen to the top of mind for embedded developers in the last year. Although the Stuxnet worm was a wake up call for the embedded industry, there have been several other notable incidents since. For example, attackers where able to gain control of a home insulin pump and change its settings (source http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20088598-501465.html). In a recent case in South Houston, Texas, an attacker gained control of the Human Machine Interface (HMI) of the SCADA system controlling parts of the water treatment plant. In that case, the HMI security consisted of an easily guessed password.

Security is now a top priority for embedded developers because the systems they build can and will be used in critical infrastructure. Infrastructure that is increasing more automated and connected, in some cases to the outside world. A fairly large collection of devices, however, is potentially insecure and is the topic for the next series of blogs I’m doing.

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Beyond the Smart Grid: Intelligent Energy

By Jeff Fortin

This past week I was at DistribuTECH 2012 and was able to see firsthand how companies supplying to the energy market are responding to Smart Grid requirements and adapting to the market needs that the Smart Grid is creating. There was a diverse array of companies in attendance demonstrating their interpretation of the future of energy -- from ABB, a veteran to the energy market, to Ceiva, who has developed an innovative approach to home energy management using their familiar electronic picture frame technology.

Wind River demonstrated a model of a wind turbine system that was controlled by the Bachmann M1 Controller System. The M1 Controller System includes modules for Digital and Analog I/O,  Network Connectivity, Fieldbuses, Safety, and a Processor Module. The Bachmann M1 Processor Module provides a robust, scalable and flexible solution for applications ranging from classical PLCs to enabling connectivity to the IT cloud, and leverages a range of Intel processors and runs Wind River’s VxWorks RTOS. By combining the processing suite offered by Intel and Wind River, the M1 can be used in applications requiring any combination of PLCs, motion controllers, connectivity and data management. The M1 is not limited to wind turbine applications -- it could be used in range of energy applications that require a safe, secure and reliable intelligent device.

   

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Detecting security problems – using static analysis to catch them early and less expensively

By Bill Graham

In my previous post I discussed the potential benefits in quality and costs that static analysis brings to software development. In addition to common coding errors, many of the bugs found by static analysis are potential security defects as well.  Buffer overflow, OS command injection, unrestricted string format and integer overflows are among the top 25 most dangerous security coding defects (according to the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWS) from the MITRE organization). These types of defects are common in C and C++ and are dangerous to correct operation in general but also pose significant security threats – often because the right exploit can lead to arbitrary code execution on the target. Once an attacker can execute code on your device, they can gain complete control, which might include reflashing the firmware, installing malware or rewriting the command and control software.

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VxWorks Cert Now Supports ARM!

By Alex Wilson

Aerospace and defense has relied on rugged embedded vehicle mounted computers for many years, but as devices become more mobile, and with increased demand to reduce SWaP (Size, Weight, and Power), ARM-based computers become an interesting alternative.  Added to that is the wealth of functionality available in ARM devices that make it a good choice, not only to reduce SWaP in the core CPU, but to reduce overall chipset sizes to a single SoC.

If we look at an example of an ARM-based device, such as the TI OMAP3530, this is a perfect device with which to build a software defined radio for example. It has a high performance, low powered Cortex A8 Core, with numerous IO devices to help connectivity and display.  Designed as a mobile device, for example, it supports Android -- and the OMAP3530 is also well suited to other areas of A&D such as soldier mounted systems, or remote sensors.

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VxWorks Cert: Supporting Low Power Devices in Safety Critical Systems

By Bill Graham

Embedded microprocessors are steadily progressing towards more performance while maintaining or decreasing power requirements (more succinctly, the performance per watt is getting better and better). High performance processors that decrease system power requirements are desired in safety critical systems just as they are in the general embedded marketplace. Our recent release of VxWorks Cert Platform adds support for ARM processors to our safety critical VxWorks platform which compliments our current support for Intel Atom processors, both of which are important platforms for high capable but low power consumption devices.  Adding ARM to the supported list of architectures expands the application of the safety critical real-time operating system (RTOS) platform to new possibilities such as mobile, handheld and graphics-oriented devices.

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Security Needed Everywhere!

By Alex Wilson

It's been a busy couple of months at Wind River with conferences and seminars as we lead up to year end.  One key theme at the various events I have been to is that of the increased need for cyber-security, a theme that is becoming important in all areas of embedded computing.

The subject first came up in Toulouse at the SAE Aerotech conference.  I was there co-hosting a session with Airbus on use of multicore technology in safety certified systems, with a great presentation by our own Joachim Hampp, and also to present a paper on our VxWorks 653 solution as a guest of BARCO.  Apart from some very interesting sessions on IMA, Unmanned Vehicles, and safety certification, the other critical area was an update on cyber-security with presentations from Airbus, Boeing and government.

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SPS/IPC/Drives, Security and Safety

By Alexander Damisch

The annual SPS/IPC/Drives event was held in Nuremberg last week, this event brings together the global leaders in automation space, including Bachmann, KW Software, ABB, Siemens, Rockwell, Yaskawa and Schneider Electric to name a few! Some key themes emanating at the event included: innovation, energy efficiency, machine-to-machine, security and safety.

Wind River made several exciting announcements at this year’s faire.

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Secure Mobility Message Resonates at MILCOM 2011

By Chip Downing

MILCOM 2011 last week in Baltimore, MD was not only educational, but it was a watershed event.   Last year, it was a “coming out” party for custom Android devices; this year however, was the year where many companies are now using COTS hardware and software to their fullest extent, along the entire supply chain, from core to edge and user devices.   I believe this COTS adoption is driven by two powerful forces – the exploding capabilities of commercial tablet devices, and global military budget pressures.

The vastly increasing power and capability of commercially available mobile communications devices is simply amazing. Just a few years ago, almost everything in this military communications space was purpose built, and most commercial products were simply inadequate to address the rugged and complex system demands of military communications systems.   As seen at MILCOM 2011, this has officially changed -- COTS end-to-end communications domains rule.

So if all of these MILCOM vendors are not making customized hardware and software, what are they doing?   Wind River had over 500 people visit its booth at MILCOM this year, and most of the discussions I had with both suppliers and end users at the show were about increasing device security and leveraging high volume COTS components in demanding deployment scenarios.

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