CAP-VMs: Capability-based isolation and sharing in the cloud
File(s)osdi22_capvms.pdf (452.92 KB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Sartakov, VA
Vilanova, L
Eyers, D
Shinagawa, T
Pietzuch, P
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Cloud stacks must isolate application components, while permitting efficient data sharing between components deployed on the same physical host. Traditionally, the MMU enforces isolation and permits sharing at page granularity. MMU approaches, however, lead to cloud stacks with large TCBs in kernel space, and page granularity requires inefficient OS interfaces for data sharing. Forthcoming CPUs with hardware support for memory capabilities offer new opportunities to implement isolation and sharing at a finer granularity. We describe cVMs, a new VM-like abstraction that uses memory capabilities to isolate application components while supporting efficient data sharing, all without mandating application code to be capability-aware. cVMs share a single virtual address space safely, each having only capabilities to access its own memory. A cVM may include a library OS, thus minimizing its dependency on the cloud environment. cVMs efficiently exchange data through two capability-based primitives assisted by a small trusted monitor: (i) an asynchronous read/write interface to buffers shared between cVMs; and (ii) a call interface to transfer control between cVMs. Using these two primitives, we build more expressive mechanisms for efficient cross-cVM communication. Our prototype implementation using CHERI RISC-V capabilities shows that cVMs isolate services (Redis and Python) with low overhead while improving data sharing.
Date Issued
2022-07-11
Date Acceptance
2022-07-01
Citation
Proceedings of the 16th USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation, OSDI 2022, 2022, pp.597-612
ISBN
9781939133281
Start Page
597
End Page
612
Journal / Book Title
Proceedings of the 16th USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation, OSDI 2022
Copyright Statement
© 2022 The Author(s).
Identifier
https://www.usenix.org/conference/osdi22/presentation/sartakov
Source
16th USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation
Publication Status
Published
Start Date
2022-07-11
Finish Date
2022-07-13
Coverage Spatial
Carlsbad, CA, USA
Date Publish Online
2022-07-11