A nippy microkernel mathematically proven to be bug free*, and used to protect drones from hacking, will be released as open source tomorrow.

The formal-methods-based secure embedded L4 (seL4) microkernel was developed by boffins backed by National ICT Australia (NICTA). In 2012, the software was enlisted to help stop hackers knocking unmanned birds out of the sky, and it's used in the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's High-Assurance Cyber Military Systems program.

It was noted as the most advanced and highly-assured member of the L4 microkernel family due to its use of formal methods that did not impact performance. A microkernel differs from monolithic kernels – such as the Linux and Windows kernels – by running as much code as possible – from drivers to system services – in user space, making the whole thing more modular and (in theory) more stable.

Tomorrow at noon Eastern Australian Standard Time (GMT +10) seL4's entire source code including proofs and additional code used to build trustworthy systems will be released under the GPL v2 licence.

A global group of maths and aviation gurus from the likes of Boeing and Rockwell Collins joined a team of dedicated NICTA researchers on the project which involved the seL4 operating system designed to detect and foil hacking attempts.

NICTA senior researcher Doctor June Andronick said the kernel should be considered by anyone building critical systems such as pacemakers and technology-rich cars.

"If your software runs the seL4 kernel, you have a guarantee that if a fault happens in one part of the system it cannot propagate to the rest of the system and in particular the critical parts," Andronick said earlier this month.

"We provide a formal mathematical proof that this seL4 kernel is correct and guarantees the isolation between components."

NICTA demonstrated in a video how a drone which running the platform could detect hacking attempts from ground stations that would normally cause the flight software to die and the aircraft to crash.

"What we are demonstrating here is that if one of the ground stations is malicious, and sends a command to the drone to stop the flight software, the commercially-available drone will accept the command, kill the software and just drop from the sky," Andronick said.

The researchers' demo drone would instead detect the intrusion at temp, flash its led lights and fly away. This could ensure that real drone missions could continue in the event of hacking attempts by combatants.

Andronick said seL4 would come into play as the team added more functionality including navigation, autonomous flight and mission control components.

In depth information about seL4 was available on the NICTA website and within the paper Comprehensive Formal Verification of an OS Microkernel. ®

* That's bug free according to the formal verification of its specification; design flaws in the specs aren't counted by the team.

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