The Confinement Problem: 40 Years Later

The confinement problem was first noted four decades ago. Since then, a huge amount of efforts have been spent on defining and mitigating the problem. The evolution of technologies from traditional operating systems to mobile and cloud computing brings about new security challenges. It is perhaps timely that we review the work that has been done. We discuss the foundational principles from classical works, as well as the efforts towards solving the confinement problem in three domains: operating systems, mobile computing, and cloud computing. While common issues exist across all three domains, unique challenges arise for each of them, which we discuss. Keywords—Confinement Problem, Covert Channels, Virtualization, Isolation, Taint Tracking