A framework for automatic and secure cycle stealing

Cycle stealing systems use idle PCs to create virtual supercomputers. Utilizing third party PCs in this way is very attractive but one fraught with problems. Firstly, writing applications is difficult without supporting middleware, the cycle stealing environment is highly volatile with machines coming and going at random. Secondly, cycle stealing applications and data need to be deployed and installed on third party machines. This requires considerable trust from third party users, if they are to donate their machines. Reports of file sharing programs such as Kazzaa carrying Trojan horses have made users understandably wary of running unknown third party code. This second problem is the focus of this paper; we describe the G2 middleware and how it is able to automatically and securely deploy and run code and associated data with minimal trust required from the user. This is achieved by leveraging the security and deployment features of Microsoft.NET and extending them to a cycle stealing system.