Slot Games for Detecting Timing Leaks of Programs

In this paper we describe a method for verifying secure information flow of programs, where apart from direct and indirect flows a secret information can be leaked through covert timing channels. That is, no two computations of a program that differ only on high-security inputs can be distinguished by low-security outputs and timing differences. We attack this problem by using slot-game semantics for a quantitative analysis of programs. We show how slot-games model can be used for performing a precise security analysis of programs, that takes into account both extensional and intensional properties of programs. The practicality of this approach for automated verification is also shown.Comment: In Proceedings GandALF 2013, arXiv:1307.416

Handshake Games

AbstractIn this paper I present a game model for the semantical analysis of handshake circuits. I show how the model captures effectively the composition of circuits in an associative way. Then I build a compact-closed category of handshake games and handshake strategies. I then consider the language Tangram and I define a semantics for this language simply by giving a denotation in the model to each handshake component that is used in the compilation of Tangram programs

Bounded linear types in a resource semiring

Abstract. Bounded linear types have proved to be useful for automated resource analysis and control in functional programming languages. In this paper we introduce a bounded linear typing discipline on a general notion of resource which can be modeled in a semiring. For this type system we provide both a general type-inference procedure, parameter-ized by the decision procedure of the semiring equational theory, and a (coherent) categorical semantics. This could be a useful type-theoretic and denotational framework for resource-sensitive compilation, and it represents a generalization of several existing type systems. As a non-trivial instance, motivated by hardware compilation, we present a com-plex new application to calculating and controlling timing of execution in a (recursion-free) higher-order functional programming language with local store. 1 Resource-aware types and semantics The two important things about a computer program are what it computes an

Compositional software verification based on game semantics

One of the major challenges in computer science is to put programming on a firmer mathematical basis, in order to improve the correctness of computer programs. Automatic program verification is acknowledged to be a very hard problem, but current work is reaching the point where at least the foundational�· aspects of the problem can be addressed and it is becoming a part of industrial software development. This thesis presents a semantic framework for verifying safety properties of open sequ;ptial programs. The presentation is focused on an Algol-like programming language that embodies many of the core ingredients of imperative and functional languages and incorporates data abstraction in its syntax. Game semantics is used to obtain a compositional, incremental way of generating accurate models of programs. Model-checking is made possible by giving certain kinds of concrete automata-theoretic representations of the model. A data-abstraction refinement procedure is developed for model-checking safety properties of programs with infinite integer types. The procedure starts by model-checking the most abstract version of the program. If no counterexample, or a genuine one, is found, the procedure terminates. Otherwise, it uses a spurious counterexample to refine the abstraction for the next iteration. Abstraction refinement, assume-guarantee reasoning and the L* algorithm for learning regular languages are combined to yield a procedure for compositional verification. Construction of a global model is avoided using assume-guarantee reasoning and the L* algorithm, by learning assumptions for arbitrary subprograms. An implementation based on the FDR model checker for the CSP process algebra demonstrates practicality of the methods

Compositional model extraction for higher-order concurrent programs

Abstract. The extraction of accurate finite-state models of higher-order or open programs is a difficult problem. We show how it can be addressed using newly developed game-semantic techniques and illustrate the solution with a model-checking tool based on such techniques. The approach has several important advantages over more traditional ones: precise account of inter-procedural behaviour, concise procedure summaries and economical extracted models. 1 Introduction an