XPE Software Hazard

[Guest]

Hi,

Im in the process of listing the hazards caused by XPE. Like, OS hangs, OS
crash,, etc.

Could any one please give me the list of hazards and the corresponding
reason??

1. In what scenarios XPE will hang while running??
2. In what scenarios XPE will crash??
3. In what scenarions XPE will show blue screen while running??

I will be very much thankful for any kind of help from you ppl.

Warm Regards
Prem

 

[KM]

Prem,

Do you realize that each XPe image is an OS itself? All XPe image are different and include different set of system components
(that's the whole purpose of the XPe ToolKit and database).
I'd love to see such complete list at least created for XP Pro.

What areas you are looking at for the testing? Drivers, kernel, system components, shells, applications, etc.?
Are you asking about some particular XPe image? If so, you would need to share more info about the image with us so that we could
think of some test cases.

=========
Regards,
KM

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Prem,

If you make your image pure driver based with your custom driver doing the work then since Win2000/XP kernel itself is very nicely
wrtitten you should not have any problems if hardware and your driver are ok.
I know what OS Crash mean (BSOD) some driver misbehaved and bum.
But what does OS Hang mean? Even if your desktop is not responding your OS can be perfectly functional on driver level but just
stucked by some midle level thread that consume 100% of processor time. But if you have some extra important thread in kernel space
it will execute completely normaly and will stay unafected. So if your time and life critical software is put there you should be
still ok even if your user interface is completely non responding,

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[steves]

I would guess that you are doing a hazard analysis.
In addition to previous comments, My thinking along this line would
include questions like:

1) What if users install unsigned drivers
(Risk: Potential Blue Screen of Death - Cure: don't Allow it!)
2) What if users install unauthorized programs (Risk: Crashing/Hanging
(Risk: Potential Crash - Cure: don't Allow it!)
3) What if my custom application causes problems
(Risk: Potential Crash - Cure: TEST IT!)
4) What if users screw up some settings...
(Risk: various, Solution: Lock down image...)



Also, Windows XP has obtained an NIST Security Validation called the
'Common Criteria' Validation. This is an independent standards-type
certification that specifies that when XP is used in a certain way data
may be considered safe from attack. More Information here:
http://niap.nist.gov/cc-scheme/defining-ccevs.html

A set of XP settings that provide increased security is available here
(note 1 line weblink follows):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...70-a0b3-4d34-a561-fa8308c0ff60&DisplayLang=en

SteveS

 

[dferencz]

Windows XPe can be configured to reboot automatically in case of a
crash (an OS exception) - check out the MS KB article Q307973.

If your app is the "shell" (designed using the Shell Prototype
component) and you've configured the shell for auto-restart, any time
your app exits it will be restarted.

Also, you can mitigate this with a watchdog timer in hardware -- if
only your app resets the watchdog, then at worst when Windows crashes
and possibly hangs (VERY unlikely if you've configured for autoreboot),
the watchdog will reboot after the timeout & you can recover when your
app restarts.

FYI, I have developed a medical device of "moderate" concern level (as
defined by the FDA) using Windows XPe and received 510(k) approval
without any problems...

-- Don