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CHERI Alliance Officially Launches, Adds Major Partners including Google, to Tackle Cybersecurity Threats at the Hardware Level

Founding members include global commercial, research, and open-source organizations, and several UK universities and government entities

CAMBRIDGE, the United Kingdom – November 12, 2024 – The CHERI Alliance CIC (Community  Interest Company) today announced its official launch and the expansion of its membership,  welcoming Chevin Technology (UK), Critical Technologies (USA), the Defence Science and  Technology Laboratory (DSTL, UK), Google (USA), Light Momentum Technology Corporation (Taiwan), National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC, a part of GCHQ, UK), Parvat Infotech (India), SRI International (USA), TechWorks (UK), Trusted Computer Center of Excellence (USA),  the University of Birmingham (UK), and the University of Glasgow (UK) as founding members.  

Founded to unite hardware security leaders and system developers, the CHERI Alliance aims  to establish CHERI (Capability Hardware Enhanced RISC Instructions) as the new standard for  memory safety and scalable software compartmentalization.  

Previously announced founding members of the CHERI Alliance include Capabilities LimitedCodasip, CyNam, the FreeBSD Foundation, lowRISC, OpenHW Group, SCI SemiconductorSwansea University, and the University of Cambridge. Following its initial formation in June  2024, the CHERI Alliance’s new additions reinforce the collaborative effort to protect against  memory-related vulnerabilities, a critical security challenge that constitutes approximately  70% of the vulnerabilities exploited in cyberattacks.  

“Expanding our membership signals growing recognition of CHERI’s transformative potential,”  said Dr. Robert N. M. Watson, Professor, University of Cambridge, Director of the CHERI  Alliance, and Director of Capabilities Limited. “After more than a decade of development,  it’s rewarding to see the CHERI community grow as new members bring their innovation and  commitment to the Alliance. We are now well-positioned to advance our mission of  delivering scalable, hardware-based security solutions that address critical vulnerabilities.”  

UK Minister for AI and Digital Government Feryal Clark said: “Digital and online security is a  fundamental part of our duty as a government to keep the British public, our vital services,  and our critical national infrastructure safe. CHERI is a fantastic example of how brilliant British  ingenuity is rising to that challenge, focusing on shoring up our defences in areas which are  so often a target for would-be cyber attackers. It’s great to see our national security  community and some of the leading lights in tech backing this work – ensuring a joined-up  approach which will keep our digital economy and the services we rely on daily safe, secure,  and alert to the growing range of online threats that we face.”  

CHERI technology, developed starting in 2010 through a collaboration between the  University of Cambridge and SRI International, offers robust protection against memory safety  issues such as buffer overflows and heap use-after-free vulnerabilities. The technology’s ability  to enable high-performance, scalable compartmentalization significantly reduces the risk of  both known and future unknown vulnerabilities. 

With a broader range of companies, open-source organizations, and research institutions on  board, the CHERI Alliance is poised to strengthen its efforts in standardization, technical  alignment, and educational outreach to promote CHERI’s adoption as an industry-standard  security measure. 

Supporting Quotes from New Alliance Members 

Ben Laurie, Lead Security Researcher at Google, commented: “Google’s interest in CHERI  stems from our unwavering commitment to security and privacy. We recognize the potential  of CHERI in significantly enhancing system security by mitigating common software  vulnerabilities. CHERI offers fine-grained compartmentalisation, which isolates sensitive data  into secure compartments, and deterministic memory safety. In security-critical systems that  handle sensitive information and personal data, such as those found in generative AI  applications, CHERI helps protect against breaches and ensures robust protection against  malicious attacks.” 

Stuart W. Card, VP & Chief Scientist, Critical Technologies, said: ”Critical Technologies Inc.  (CTI) designs to integrate Capability Hardware Enhanced RISC Instructions (CHERI), driven by  the CHERI Alliance, into open platforms for trustworthy networked autonomy. With Syracuse  University, CTI previously developed the first (and still to our knowledge only) capability  based, formally verified, open source, multiboot loader for x86 processors with ‘late launch’ DRTM instructions and TPMs; we will do likewise with CHERI as needed to enable seL4® based  virtualization for safe AI/ML.” 

Allen Cheng, CEO of LMT, said: “LMT is excited to join the CHERI Alliance and contribute to a  future of enhanced security and reliability in computing. Our commitment to providing  dependable computing solutions aligns perfectly with CHERI’s vision of a safer digital  landscape. We look forward to leveraging CHERI technology to develop innovative and  secure IC products and services. As a CHERI ambassador in Taiwan and the APAC region, we  will actively promote this cutting-edge technology to industry leaders, agencies, and  associations, addressing the growing cybersecurity challenges posed by today’s geopolitical  climate.” 

Dr. Divya Atkins, co-founder, Director, and CEO of Parvat Infotech, said: “CHERI is a  transformational technology, but until now has been largely limited to the UK. We want to  see its advantages extended to the rest of the world, and especially to India, where, at one  end of the spectrum, there is a vast digital public infrastructure using server class hardware,  and at the other end, smart cities full of IoT devices. All of these need better security, and our  goal is to make that happen. Parvat, being an Indian company, is a newcomer to CHERI, but  our principals have been working with CHERI in the UK, so we have the knowledge and  experience to support our goal, as well as the mission of the CHERI Alliance.” 

Patrick Hurley, TCCoE Executive Director, said: “Trusted Computing Center of Excellence  (TCCoE) members are eager to work with CHERI Alliance members to foster trustworthy  foundations for computing. CHERI Alliance driven standard hardware support for efficient  memory access capabilities complements TCCoE facilitated and promoted formal methods  for development and verification of operating systems and other software. These synergistic  techniques offer a path out of the current crisis in the safety/security/complexity of software  dependent systems to a more resilient and prosperous future.”

John Moor, COO, TechWorks, said: “The challenge of memory safety is a significant and  growing problem for computing and cybersecurity – it simply cannot be ignored. Industry  must provide solutions for this challenge as the world becomes increasingly digital and  connected. As the UK’s deep tech trade association, we understand the power of  collaboration and TechWorks is fully supportive of the CHERI Alliance and its ambitious goals.  We look forward to working with the CHERI Alliance to help raise more awareness and  enable more commercially-available memory-safe solutions.”  

Jeremy Singer, a Reader in Programming Language Implementation at the School of  Computing Science, University of Glasgow, said: “We are delighted to join the CHERI  Alliance, since we are actively contributing CHERI patches to open-source codebases and  we want to do all we can to encourage wider adoption of memory safe compute platforms  like CHERI.”    

Membership Requests  

The CHERI Alliance welcomes applications from forward-thinking companies looking to  shape the future of cybersecurity. Interested companies can apply via the CHERI Alliance  website or contact us directly at the email address provided for more details.  

The CHERI Alliance has received funding from the Department for Science, Innovation and  Technology (DSIT, UK).  

About The CHERI Alliance 

CHERI Alliance is a community interest organization promoting the global adoption of the  Capability Hardware Enhanced RISC Instructions (CHERI) security technology across the  computing industry. Building on over a decade of pioneering research by the University of  Cambridge and SRI International, CHERI introduces a proven architecture designed to  enhance system security through fine-grained memory protection and software  compartmentalization. The Alliance is actively engaging with industry, academia, and the  public sector to standardize and implement CHERI across a diverse range of computing  platforms. Founding members include Capabilities Limited, Chevin Technology, Codasip,  Critical Technologies, CyNam, DSTL, the FreeBSD Foundation, Google, LMT, lowRISC, National  Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), OpenHW Group, Parvat Infotech, SCI Semiconductor, SRI,  Swansea University, TCCoE, TechWorks, the University of Cambridge, the University of  Birmingham, and the University of Glasgow. To learn more, visit http://www.cheri-alliance.org

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