The Multiple Facets of Software Diversity

Abstract

Early experiments with software diversity in the mid 1970s investigated N-version programming and recovery blocks to increase the reliability of embedded systems. Four decades later, the literature about software diversity has expanded in multiple directions: goals (fault tolerance, security, software engineering), means (managed or automated diversity), and analytical studies (quantification of diversity and its impact). Our article contributes to the field of software diversity as the first work that adopts an inclusive vision of the area, with an emphasis on the most recent advances in the field. This survey includes classical work about design and data diversity for fault tolerance, as well as the cybersecurity literature that investigates randomization at different system levels. It broadens this standard scope of diversity to include the study and exploitation of natural diversity and the management of diverse software products. Our survey includes the most recent works, with an emphasis from 2000 to the present. The targeted audience is researchers and practitioners in one of the surveyed fields who miss the big picture of software diversity. Assembling the multiple facets of this fascinating topic sheds a new light on the field.