Award Abstract # 2040206
SaTC: TTP: Medium: The Tigress Endpoint Protection Tool

NSF Org: CNS
Division Of Computer and Network Systems
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
Initial Amendment Date: April 12, 2021
Latest Amendment Date: May 20, 2021
Award Number: 2040206
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Daniel F. Massey
dmassey@nsf.gov
 (703)292-5147
CNS
 Division Of Computer and Network Systems
CSE
 Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering
Start Date: April 15, 2021
End Date: March 31, 2025 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $950,240.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $950,240.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2021 = $950,240.00
History of Investigator:
  • Christian Collberg (Principal Investigator)
    collberg@cs.arizona.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of Arizona
845 N PARK AVE RM 538
TUCSON
AZ  US  85721
(520)626-6000
Sponsor Congressional District: 07
Primary Place of Performance: University of Arizona
1040 E. 4th Street
Tucson
AZ  US  85721-0077
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
07
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): ED44Y3W6P7B9
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): Secure &Trustworthy Cyberspace
Primary Program Source: 01002122DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 025Z, 7924
Program Element Code(s): 806000
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.070

ABSTRACT

In Computer Security, an endpoint is any piece of software under the control of a user who, if malicious, can gain an advantage by inspecting, reverse engineering, or tampering with the software. Vulnerable endpoints are ubiquitous and include software in automobiles, mobile phones, medical devices, smart meters, and IoT devices in smart homes. An endpoint security tool transforms software that will run on a device that is under the control of a potential adversary in order to delay the inspection of, tampering with, or reverse engineering the software. The project's impacts are that the investigators provide an endpoint security tool, Tigress, that aids commercial developers in securing their software assets against endpoint attacks. Tigress also gives the academic computer security community a competent adversary that allows more e ective research into malware and software analysis. The project's novelties are that the investigators make available a comprehensive tool that can protect any kind of asset, in any kind of application, against any kind of endpoint attack.

In this project the investigators transition Tigress to practice. Speci cally, Tigress' library of transformations are extended with protections against fuzzing, symbolic analysis, code-byte tampering, and emulation. Furthermore, performance of generated code is improved, allowing Tigress-generated code to run on low-powered devices, and investigators publish comprehensive security evaluation information so that developers know the level of protection Tigress a ords their applications.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.

Print this page

Back to Top of page