Heap $$\ldots $$ Hop! Heap Is Also Vulnerable

Abstract

Several logical attacks against Java based smart card have been published recently. Most of them are based on the hypothesis that the type verification was not performed, thus allowing to obtain dynamically a type confusion. To mitigate such attacks, typed stack have been introduced on recent smart card. We propose here a new attack path for performing a type confusion even in presence of a typed stack. Then we propose using a Fault Tree Analysis a way to design efficiently counter measure in a top down approach. These counter measures are then evaluated on a Java Card virtual machine

Java Card Virtual Machine Memory Organization: a Design Proposal

“…These hardware blocks aim at protecting the runtime environment. Lackner et al designed mitigation to prevent type confusion onto the stack [24,25] and the heap [8]. In his master's thesis, Zelle [46] describes how to protect the Java Card firewall through a Memory Protection Unit (MPU).…”