DoD Communities Of Interest: Cyber
Subject : Hardening Development Toolchains Against Emergent Execution Engines
Due Date: Nov 04, 2021 12:00 pm EDT
Government Organization: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Description :
On September 20, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) released the solicitation for the Hardening Development Toolchains Against Emergent Execution Engines (HARDEN) program. A Proposers’ Day will be held on September 30, and proposals are due by 12:00 p.m. Eastern on November 4.
The HARDEN program will explore novel approaches that use formal verification methods and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-aided program models, analyses, and logics to develop practical tools to anticipate, isolate, and mitigate emergent execution engines throughout the entire software development lifecycle in order to disrupt the patterns of robust, reliable, and composable exploit primitives that empower attackers.
DARPA is soliciting innovative proposals in the following areas of interest: tools to anticipate, isolate, and mitigate adversarially programmable emergent behaviors in integrated software systems, and tools to protect intended software abstractions from adversarial reuse. Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in theory, tools, devices, or systems. Specifically excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice.
The Department of Defense (DoD) has a critical need to deny cyber attackers the capability to execute unintended, yet robust and often unobservable computations on DoD systems and critical infrastructure systems. The HARDEN program will explore novel theories and approaches, and develop practical tools to anticipate, isolate, and mitigate emergent behaviors in computing systems throughout the entire software development lifecycle (SDLC).
HARDEN will radically improve security outcomes in software for integrated systems by creating novel tools, metadata, and instrumentation for emergent computation, and it will efficiently mitigate the exploitation of software abstractions and protect intended abstractions from adversarial reuse. HARDEN will integrate those capabilities into the standard processes of the SDLC.
Website : https://sam.gov/opp/3f6ee0a93e4844e59e3681e2cdf05936/view
Questions or assistance, contact:
North Carolina Defense Technology Transition Office (DEFTECH)
Dennis Lewis
lewisd@ncmbc.us
703-217-3127
Bob Burton
burtonr@ncmbc.us
910-824-9609
North Carolina Defense Technology Transition Office | PO Box 1748, Fayetteville, NC 2B303