INTEGRITY-178 tuMP is the First RTOS Used to Meet NSA Raise the Bar Requirements for Cross Domain Solutions

Collins Aerospace selected the INTEGRITY-178 tuMP RTOS because it uniquely meets the Raise the Bar security assurance requirements

News provided by

Green Hills Software

Mar 05, 2021, 08:00 ET

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., March 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Green Hills Software, the worldwide leader in high-assurance operating systems, today announced that its INTEGRITY^®-178 Time-Variant Unified Multi-Processing (tuMP™) RTOS is being used by Collins Aerospace to meet the NSA's Raise the Bar (RTB) initiative for Cross Domain Solutions (CDS). Collins is using the INTEGRITY-178 tuMP real-time operating system (RTOS) in the small form-factor, tactical CDS that is being deployed on the U.S. Navy's Tactical Combat Training System Increment II (TCTS II) program and is targeted for the U.S Air Force's P6 Combat Training Systems (P6CTS). Collins said INTEGRITY-178 tuMP made this Raise the Bar CDS certification approval possible by "uniquely meeting the functionality requirements of the Navy's TCTS II CDS and security assurance requirements of RTB."

Raise the Bar is a set of security standards published in 2018 by the National Cross Domain Strategy Management Office (NCDSMO) within the National Security Agency (NSA) to set design and implementation requirements for CDS. The RTB standard goes well beyond the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Risk Management Framework (RMF) controls that many government agencies implement. RTB standards ensure that CDS systems are at low risk of failing, even when under persistent attack. RTB is designed to combat evolving threats by continually improving CDS effectiveness.

CDS systems are a critical part of a multi-domain operational environment where warfighters need data at their fingertips to make real-time decisions. By leveraging the INTEGRITY-178 tuMP security-hardened operating system, the Collins CDS allows for greater access control, data isolation between applications, resource sanitation, and fault isolation on a multicore processor. Running securely on a multicore processor enables the Collins CDS to radically increase speeds and support high-assurance information flow policy enforcement from the command centers to the people and platforms at the tactical edge.

The INTEGRITY-178 tuMP RTOS is a multiple independent levels of security (MILS) operating system that has been deployed on numerous multi-level security (MLS) and CDS programs. INTEGRITY-178 tuMP has a unique pedigree of meeting the strictest security assurance and functional requirements. Even before the creation of the RTB standards, Green Hills Software led the way to meeting CDS requirements for an operating system by getting INTEGRITY-178 certified to the NSA-defined Separation Kernel Protection Profile (SKPP) in 2008. The SKPP is the highest assurance set of requirements ever created for an operating system, and INTEGRITY-178 was certified to Common Criteria EAL 6+ and "High Robustness." High Robustness means the OS was determined to be resistant to an extremely sophisticated adversary with abundant resources, such as a persistent threat from a nation-state.

As part of certification to the SKPP, INTEGRITY-178 underwent independent vulnerability analysis and penetration testing by the NSA to demonstrate both that it is resistant to an attacker possessing a high attack potential and that it does not allow attackers with a high attack potential to violate the security policies. Additionally, INTEGRITY-178 underwent covert channel analysis by the NSA to demonstrate that it satisfies all covert channel mitigation metrics. INTEGRITY-178 tuMP extends that security pedigree to multicore systems, and it continues to meet the SKPP's functional and assurance requirements for those programs that require the highest levels of security assurance.

TCTS II and P6CTS are air combat training programs that will enable joint tactics, techniques, and procedures in a secure environment against a peer adversary threat, unlike anything the services have been able to do in the past. These collaborative programs lay the digital foundation for bringing secure, cross-service air combat and joint Live, Virtual, and Constructive (LVC) training to the U.S. and its allies. With an open systems architecture that is conformant with the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE™) Technical Standard, TCTS II ensures interoperability between platforms, reducing test time and ultimately increasing rapid, affordable deployment of the solution. P6CTS also uses a modular open systems architecture (MOSA) incorporating the FACE Technical Standard to simplify both obsolescence management and future upgrades to new technologies. Used on both TCTS II and P6CTS, the INTEGRITY-178 tuMP RTOS is certified conformant to the FACE Technical Standard, Edition 3.0.

Additional Resources:

Article at Modern Integrated Warfare:
Raise the Bar: Demanding Cybersecurity Excellence for Cross Domain Solutions in the Battlespace
White paper:
Creating a Trusted Embedded Platform for MLS Applications

About Green Hills Software
Founded in 1982, Green Hills Software is the worldwide leader in embedded safety and security. In 2008, the Green Hills INTEGRITY-178 RTOS was the first and only operating system to be certified by NIAP (National Information Assurance Partnership comprised of NSA & NIST) to EAL 6+, High Robustness, the highest level of security ever achieved for any software product. Our open architecture, integrated development solutions address deeply embedded, safety/security and high-reliability applications for the military/avionics, medical, industrial, automotive, networking, consumer and other markets that demand industry-certified solutions. Green Hills Software is headquartered in Santa Barbara, CA, with European headquarters in the United Kingdom. Visit Green Hills Software at www.ghs.com.

Green Hills, the Green Hills logo, INTEGRITY and tuMP are trademarks or registered trademarks of Green Hills Software, in the U.S. and/or internationally. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Green Hills Software