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1. CHEx86: Context-Sensitive Enforcement of Memory Safety via Microcode-Enabled Capabilities

   https://doi.org/10.1109/ISCA45697.2020.00068  

   Sharifi, Rasool ; Venkat, Ashish ( May 2020 , 2020 ACM/IEEE 47th Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA))

   This work introduces the CHEx86 processor architecture for securing applications, including legacy binaries, against a wide array of security exploits that target temporal and spatial memory safety vulnerabilities such as out-of-bounds accesses, use-after-free, double-free, and uninitialized reads, by instrumenting the code at the microcode-level, completely under-the-hood, with only limited access to source-level symbol information. In addition, this work presents a novel scheme for speculatively tracking pointer arithmetic and pointer movement, including the detection of pointer aliases in memory, at the machine code-level using a configurable set of automatically constructed rules. This architecture outperforms the address sanitizer, a state-of-the-art software-based mitigation by 59%, while eliminating porting, deployment, and verification costs that are invariably associated with recompilation.
2. Deciding memory safety for single-pass heap-manipulating programs

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3371103  

   Mathur, Umang ; Murali, Adithya ; Krogmeier, Paul ; Madhusudan, P. ; Viswanathan, Mahesh ( January 2020 , Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages)
3. Building for ‘We’: Safety Settings for Couples with Memory Concerns

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445071  

   McDonald, Nora ; Mentis, Helena M. ( January 2021 , Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems)

   Designing technologies that support the mutual cybersecurity and autonomy of older adults facing cognitive challenges requires close collaboration of partners. As part of research to design a Safety Setting application for older adults with memory loss or mild cognitive impairment (MCI), we use a scenario-based participatory design. Our study builds on previous findings that couples’ approach to memory loss was characterized by a desire for flexibility and choice, and an embrace of role uncertainty. We find that couples don't want a system that fundamentally alters their relationship and are looking to maximize self-surveillance competence and minimize loss of autonomy for their partners. All desire Safety Settings to maintain their mutual safety rather than designating one partner as the target of oversight. Couples are open to more rigorous surveillance if they have control over what types of activities trigger various levels of oversight.
4. “Citizens Too”: Safety Setting Collaboration Among Older Adults with Memory Concerns

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3465217  

   Mcdonald, Nora ; Mentis, Helena M. ( October 2021 , ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction)

   Designing technologies that support the cybersecurity of older adults with memory concerns involves wrestling with an uncomfortable paradox between surveillance and independence and the close collaboration of couples. This research captures the interactions between older adult couples where one or both have memory concerns—a primary feature of cognitive decline—as they make decisions on how to safeguard their online activities using a Safety Setting probe we designed, and over the course of several informal interviews and a diary study. Throughout, couples demonstrated a collaborative mentality to which we apply a frame of citizenship in opensource collaboration, specifically (a) histories of participation , (b) lower barriers to participation, and (c) maintaining ongoing contribution. In this metaphor of collaborative enterprise, one partner (or member of the couple) may be the service provider and the other may be the participant, but at varying moments, they may switch roles while still maintaining a collaborative focus on preserving shared assets and freedom on the internet. We conclude with a discussion of what this service provider-contributor mentality means for empowerment through citizenship, and implications for vulnerable populations’ cybersecurity.
5. Working-Memory Load as a Factor Determining the Safety Performance of Construction Workers

   Liko, G. ; Esmaeili, B. ; Hasanzadeh, S. ; Dodd, M. D. ; and Brock, R. ( March 2020 , Construction Research Congress 2020)

   Cognitive processes have been found to contribute substantially to the human errors that lead to construction accidents. Working memory—a cognitive system with a limited capacity that is responsible for temporarily holding information available for processing—plays an important role in reasoning and decision-making. Since eye movements indicate where a worker directs his/her attention, tracking such movements provides a practical way to measure workers’ attention and comprehension of construction hazards. As a departure in construction industry research, this study correlates attentional allocation with working memory to assess workers’ situation awareness under different scenarios that expose workers to various hazards. To achieve this goal, this study merges research linking eye movements and workers’ attention with research focused on working-memory load and decision making and evaluates what, how, and where a worker distributes his/her attention while performing a task under different working-memory loads. Path analysis models then examined the direct and indirect effect of different working-memory loads on hazard identification performance. The independent variable (working-memory load) is linked to the dependent variable (hazard identification) through the set of mediators (attention metrics). The results showed that the high-memory load condition delayed workers’ hazard identification. The findings of this study emphasize the important role working memorymore »plays in determining how and why workers in dynamic work environments fail to detect, comprehend, and/or respond to physical risks.« less