Paper Title: Memory Fencing for Detection of DMA Memory Address Violations

Paper Abstract: Direct memory access (DMA) channels are becoming more common in storage systems, particularly with the advent of NVMe and NVMe-oF. Memory accesses outside permitted ranges are a frequent problem and difficult to uncover. What one sees in practice are mysterious changes turning up in odd places. And they are often not reproducible since the incorrect addresses will vary. These failures can be difficult and time consuming to debug. With tight production schedules, it’s critically important to catch errors early in the development process. Our DMA memory address violation invention addresses two main issues: 1. Functional errors that occur when a device with a DMA engine accesses memory space outside the area specified by the driver. This can cause problems that range from simple data corruption to total system failure. 2. Outside hacks that cause purposeful memory accesses outside the granted range. The intent may be system hacking, unauthorized data access, launching of malware, infecting a system with a virus, or logging system activities that were not intended to be exposed.

Paper Author: Bob Weisickle, CEO, OakGate Technology

Author Bio: Bob Weisickle co-founded OakGate Technology and serves as its Strategy & Technology Officer. Bob plays a pivotal role in strategic customer engagements and technology leadership initiatives. He has had a distinguished career in the storage and server industries, holding key positions at both large companies and startups. During his 26-year tenure at Hewlett Packard, Bob held a variety of positions, including head of the Enterprise Storage Laboratory. Bob also played leadership roles in the engineering organizations at Sun Microsystems/Oracle, Network Appliance, Intransa, and Rackable Systems. He has extensive experience managing large engineering teams and offshore development facilities. Bob earned MS in computer science and BSEE degrees from Santa Clara University. Bob is a widely recognized authority in test, product development, and performance analysis, has written many articles, and has presented at many events including past Flash Memory Summits.