SYSGO: PikeOS achieves Common Criteria (CC) level EAL5+ Security Certification

The higher EAL level assures that the PikeOS was designed semi-formally and checked against vulnerabilities that are increasingly complex to exploit. System architects and developers of embedded software benefit from this high level of assurance and may have strong certainty in PikeOS’ security measures against sabotage and data theft. 

Target markets for SYSGO’s real-time operating system and hypervisor PikeOS can be found in any safety and cybersecurity critical devices and infrastructure, especially in avionics, defence, automotive, rail, medical, industrial or space sector.

Typical applications are IoT-connected cars, construction and agricultural machines, trains, airplanes, and drones of any autonomy level – including any automated guided vehicles – as well as connected real-time controls inside the infrastructures of these devices. In Industry 4.0 factories, EAL 5+ certified PikeOS is also used for connected stationary machines – with or without functional safety – as well as for collaborative robots and autonomous logistic vehicles.

OEMs deploy CC level EAL 5+certified OSes for example for perimeter protection with trusted functions for access control, digital signature, secure gateway and secure communication but also for zero-trust architectures.

Although PikeOS has a comparatively small code base and thus offers little attack surface, the certified feature set stands out to comparable products. MILS-based (Multiple Independent Levels of Security) PikeOS is the only OS that offers highest certification standards for safety as well as cybersecurity for the same product and the same code base.

With its rich security feature base, customers do not only profit from the separation of partitions (spatial and temporal), but also form the controlled information flow, access to control and availability of resources. In addition, intrusion detection, data protection, and any other type of trusted computing are also among the supported features. This makes PikeOS an ideal choice as the foundation for many use cases such as a secure gateway, secure connectivity, over the air (OTA) software updates, data protection or secure routers.

"The PikeOS real-time operating system and hypervisor provide our customers with one of the highest levels of security achievable for embedded operating systems and hypervisor technology. Whether to reinforce the in-depth cybersecurity of embedded systems subject to other constraints like safety, or to leverage on the strong security properties of PikeOS for cybersecurity embedded devices handling various security level of data, PikeOS is a unique choice to accelerate the definition of the security architecture and the compliancy to various security standards. Moving towards cybersecured execution platforms, SYSGO also provide a comprehensive set of additional security features like secure boot, Trusted Execution Environment, Intrusion Detection Systems or Secure routing capability," said Etienne Butery, CEO of SYSGO.”

The Common Criteria (CC) level EAL 5+ compliant certification kit delivered by SYSGO helps reduce security certification time of an embedded device based on PikeOS.

Customers can use the artifacts for their certification processes in Avionics DO-356A/ED-203A (Airworthiness Security Methods and Considerations), Automotive (ISO/SAE 21434), Railway (CLC/TS 50701) and Defence.