Mitre Corporation

About: Mitre Corporation is a company organization based out in Bedford, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Air traffic control & National Airspace System. The organization has 4884 authors who have published 6053 publications receiving 124808 citations. The organization is also known as: Mitre & MITRE.

Security Kernel validation in practice

Abstract: A security kernel is a software and hardware mechanism that enforces access controls within a computer system. The correctness of a security kernel on a PDP-11/45 is being proved. This paper describes the technique used to carry out the first step of the proof: validating a formal specification of the program with respect to axioms for a secure system.

A 36-yr Climatological Description of the Evaporative Sources of Warm-Season Precipitation in the Mississippi River Basin

Abstract: The terrestrial and oceanic sources of moisture that supply warm-season rainfall to the Mississippi River basin and its subbasins are examined over a 36-yr period (1963–98). Using hourly observed precipitation, National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalyses at 6-h intervals, and a back-trajectory algorithm, the water falling during observed precipitation events is probabilistically traced to its most recent surface evaporative source, terrestrial or oceanic. Maps of these sources generally show dual maxima, one terrestrial and one oceanic, in spring and a dominance of terrestrial sources in summer. Pentad time series averaged over the 36 years show a late-summer maximum of precipitation recycling in all but the Missouri subbasin. During the 36 years analyzed, 32% of warm-season precipitation in the entire Mississippi basin originated as evaporation within the basin (recycled). About 20% of warm-season precipitation was contributed directly by evaporation from the Gulf of Mexico a...

Formal query languages for secure relational databases

Abstract: The addition of stringent security specifications to the list of requirements for an application poses many new problems in DBMS design and implementation, as well as database design, use, and maintenance. Tight security requirements, such as those that result in silent masking of witholding of true information from a user or the introduction of false information into query answers, also raise fundamental questions about the meaning of the database and the semantics of accompanying query languages. In this paper, we propose a belief-based semantics for secure databases, which provides a semantics for databases that can “lie” about the state of the world, or about their knowledge about the state of the world, in order to preserve security. This kind of semantics can be used as a helpful retrofit for the proposals for a “multilevel secure” database model (a particularly stringent form of security), and may be useful for less restrictive security policies as well. We also propose a family of query languages for multilevel secure relational database applications, and base the semantics of those languages on our semantics for secure databases. Our query languages are free of the semantic problems associated with use of ordinary SQL in a multilevel secure context, and should be easy for users to understand and employ.

Searching for shapes in cryptographic protocols

Abstract: We describe a method for enumerating all essentially different executions possible for a cryptographic protocol. We call them the shapes of the protocol. Naturally occurring protocols have only finitely many, indeed very few shapes. Authentication and secrecy properties are easy to determine from them, as are attacks. cpsa, our Cryptographic Protocol Shape Analyzer, implements the method. In searching for shapes, cpsa starts with some initial behavior, and discovers what shapes are compatible with it. Normally, the initial behavior is the point of view of one participant. The analysis reveals what the other principals must have done, given this participant's view.

JointSTARS and GMTI: past, present and future

Abstract: The concept of airborne surveillance of enemy ground forces with a Ground Moving Target Indicator [now called GMTI] radar capable of detecting moving ground vehicles and helicopters was proposed in 1968 and resulted in a DoD program to realize its potential. This article traces the program history starting with the Army's Stand Off Target Acquisition System [SOTAS] as it evolved through the Small Aerostat Surveillance System [SASS] and the Assault Breaker/Pave Mover programs into the currently fielded Joint Surveillance and Target Attack System [JointSTARS], which, in prototype form, more than proved its worth in the 1991 Gulf War. New developments and trends in GMTI radars are also discussed together with other potential platforms.