Several open-source memory allocators have been ported to CHERI, a hardware capability platform. In this paper we examine the security and performance of these allocators when run under CheriBSD on Arm’s prototype Morello platform. We introduce a number of security attacks and show that all but one allocator are vulnerable to some of the attacks — including the default CheriBSD allocator. We then show that while some forms of allocator performance are meaningful, comparing the performance of hybrid and pure capability (i.e. `running in non-CHERI vs. running in CHERI modes’) allocators does not currently appear to be meaningful. Although we do not fully understand the reasons for this, it seems to be at least as much due to factors such as immature compiler toolchains and prototype hardware as it is due to the effects of capabilities on performance.

Sun 18 Jun

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14:00 - 15:20
ISMM: Session 4 - Allocations and Garbage CollectionISMM 2023 at Magnolia 22
Chair(s): Tony Hosking Australian National University

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14:00
20m
Talk
Concurrent GCs and Modern Java Workloads: A Cache PerspectiveBest Paper Award
ISMM 2023
Maria Carpen-Amarie Huawei Zurich Research Center, Switzerland, Georgios Vavouliotis Huawei Zurich Research Center, Switzerland, Konstantinos Tovletoglou Huawei Zurich Research Center, Switzerland, Boris Grot University of Edinburgh, UK, Rene Mueller Huawei Zurich Research Center, Switzerland
DOI
14:20
20m
Talk
Wait-Free Weak Reference Counting
ISMM 2023
Matthew J. Parkinson Azure Research, Microsoft, UK, Sylvan Clebsch Azure Research, Ben Simner
DOI
14:40
20m
Talk
NUMAlloc: A Faster NUMA Memory Allocator
ISMM 2023
Hanmei Yang University of Massachusetts Amherst, Xin Zhao University of Massachusetts Amherst, Jin Zhou University of Massachusetts Amherst, Wei Wang University of Texas at San Antonio, USA, Sandip Kundu University of Massachusetts Amherst, Bo Wu Colorado School of Mines, Hui Guan University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Tongping Liu University of Massachusetts at Amherst
DOI
15:00
20m
Talk
Picking a CHERI Allocator: Security and Performance Considerations
ISMM 2023
Jacob Bramley Arm, Dejice Jacob University of Glasgow, UK, Andrei Lascu King's College London, Jeremy Singer University of Glasgow, Laurence Tratt King's College London, Andrei Lascu King's College London
DOI Pre-print