Check out the new USENIX Web site.

Home About USENIX Events Membership Publications Students
OSDI '02 Abstract

Defensive Programming: Using an Annotation Toolkit to Build DoS-Resistant Software

Xiaohu Qie, Ruoming Pang, and Larry Peterson, Princeton University

Abstract

This paper describes a toolkit to help improve the robustness of code against DoS attacks. We observe that when developing software, programmers primarily focus on functionality. Protecting code from attacks is often considered the responsibility of the OS, firewalls and intrusion detection systems. As a result, many DoS vulnerabilities are not discovered until the system is attacked and the damage is done. Instead of reacting to attacks after the fact, this paper argues that a better solution is to make software defensive by systematically injecting protection mechanisms into the code itself. Our toolkit provides an API that programmers use to annotate their code. At runtime, these annotations serve as both sensors and actuators: watching for resource abuse and taking the appropriate action should abuse be detected. This paper presents the design and implementation of the toolkit, as well as evaluation of its effectiveness with three widely-deployed network services.
  • View the full text of this paper in HTML, PDF, and Postscript. Until December 2003, you will need your USENIX membership identification in order to access the full papers.
    The Proceedings are published as a collective work, © 2002 by the USENIX Association. All Rights Reserved. Rights to individual papers remain with the author or the author's employer. Permission is granted for the noncommercial reproduction of the complete work for educational or research purposes. USENIX acknowledges all trademarks within this paper.

  • If you need the latest Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can download it from Adobe's site.
To become a USENIX Member, please see our Membership Information.

?Need help? Use our Contacts page.

Last changed: 4 Nov. 2002 aw
Technical Program
OSDI '02 Home
USENIX home