@misc{Kwarteng2025, type = {Master Thesis}, author = {Kwarteng, Ferdinand Prempeh}, title = {Security requirements and mechanisms for real-time serverless computing : a focus on Function-as-a-Service (FaaS)}, doi = {10.26127/BTUOpen-7164}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:co1-opus4-71645}, school = {BTU Cottbus - Senftenberg}, year = {2025}, abstract = {Serverless computing, particularly its Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) offering, has emerged as a prominent cloud computing model empowering developers to craft event-driven applications by deploying custom application logic in an ephemeral runtime environment. This model abstracts away the underlying infrastructure complexities and management overhead, offering key benefits such as Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) billing and automated scalability. Although Real-Time (RT) extensions to FaaS (RT-FaaS) have been proposed for realizing the functional requirements of industrial automation virtualization use cases, these architectures introduce distinct security challenges that generic security mechanisms cannot fully address. As a result, RT-FaaS platforms remain vulnerable to both internal and external threats and a variety of exploitation vectors that can compromise the Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability (CIA) security properties of such a platform. The aim of this thesis is to assess the core security requirements of a RT-FaaS platform by evaluating potential vulnerabilities and risks within this environment. We further propose specifically tailored mitigation mechanisms based on the extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) and cryptographic digital signatures for a RT-FaaS platform with a WebAssembly (WASM) runtime to enhance its resilience without imposing prohibitive performance overheads. Key areas of focus for this work include RT-FaaS runtime isolation, continuous security enforcement and data protection. We evaluated the proposed security mitigation mechanisms on the platform accounting for both effectiveness and performance. By doing so, we discuss the trade-offs between the stringent security requirements and maintaining predictable, low-latency execution essential for industrial automation use cases. While we observed some considerable jitter and latency overheads on the secure RT-FaaS platform, these did not significantly impact the functional performance of the platform. Hence adopting serverless computing for RT industrial automation use cases is feasible while ensuring robust function, system and network security.}, subject = {Serverless computing; Real-time Function-as-a-Service; Industrial automation; Security mechanisms; WebAssembly runtime; Serverloses Computing; Echtzeit-Funktion-als-Dienstleistung; Industrielle Automatisierung; Sicherheitsmechanismen; WebAssembly-Laufzeitumgebung; Serverless Computing; Function as a Service; Sicherheit; Datenschutz}, language = {en} }