Software Defect Masquerade Faults in Distributed Embedded Systems

Distributed embedded systems often consist of multiple nodes that communicate over a shared network. For such systems, dependable message delivery among nodes is crucial to overall system dependability. One threat to this dependable message delivery is a software defect masquerade fault, where a software defect causes one node or process to send a message as having come from another node or process. Unfortunately, many embedded system designs do not address this particular failure mode. This paper outlines what software defect masquerade faults are and why they are often ignored in current embedded systems. We also present preliminary research into methods to prevent them in embedded system design.