Threat Analysis of GNU Software Radio

Software defined radio (SDR) technology implements some of the functional modules of a radio system in software enabling highly flexible handsets. SDR devices may be reconfigured dynamically via the download of new software modules. Malicious or malfunctioning downloaded software present serious security risks to SDR devices and networks in which they operate. In this paper, we analyze threats pertaining to the secure execution of downloaded software. We base our analysis on the open-source implementation of GNU Software Radio. We propose mechanisms to provide the secure execution of software modules that implement radio functionality.