The Secure Patch Distribution Group is composed of a number of students and faculty within the COAST Laboratory at Purdue University who are interested in finding safe ways to distribute system patches.

Purpose of the Group

The purpose of this group is to develop methods of safely distributing security-relevant patches to critical systems. It is directed to methods of distributing software patches in such a way that they cannot be reverse-engineered and used against other sites.

Near-Term Goals

We hope to identify some of the ways that distribution of security patches and tools may be made safer.

Related Information

Current Status

Suggested several ways that security patches and tools may be made safer and summarized findings in the paper "Low-Threat Security Patches and Tools". An abstract for the paper is available.

Sponsors

Members of the Group

The Secure Patch Distribution Group is composed of the following COAST students and faculty:

  • Eugene Spafford, Director
  • Samual Wagstaff, Faculty
  • Ganesh Krishnan, Graduate Student
  • Markus Kuhn, Graduate Student
  • Lyle Bertz, Graduate Student
COAST Secure Patch Distribution Group