40 research outputs found
Nontransitive Policies Transpiled
Nontransitive Noninterference (NTNI) and Nontransitive Types (NTT) are a new security condition and enforcement for policies which, in contrast to Denning\u27s classical lattice model, assume no transitivity of the underlying flow relation. Nontransitive security policies are a natural fit for coarse-grained information-flow control where labels are specified at module rather than variable level of granularity.While the nontransitive and transitive policies pursue different goals and have different intuitions, this paper demonstrates that nontransitive noninterference can in fact be reduced to classical transitive noninterference. We develop a lattice encoding that establishes a precise relation between NTNI and classical noninterference. Our results make it possible to clearly position the new NTNI characterization with respect to the large body of work on noninterference. Further, we devise a lightweight program transformation that leverages standard flow-sensitive information-flow analyses to enforce nontransitive policies. We demonstrate several immediate benefits of our approach, both theoretical and practical. First, we improve the permissiveness over (while retaining the soundness of) the nonstandard NTT enforcement. Second, our results naturally generalize to a language with intermediate inputs and outputs. Finally, we demonstrate the practical benefits by utilizing state-of-the-art flow-sensitive tool JOANA to enforce nontransitive policies for Java programs
Flow-sensitive, context-sensitive, and object-sensitive information flow control based on program dependance graphs
Information flow control (IFC) checks whether a program can leak secret data to public ports, or whether critical computations can be influenced from outside. But many IFC analyses are imprecise, as they are flow-insensitive, context-insensitive, or object-insensitive; resulting in false alarms. We argue that IFC must better exploit modern program analysis technology, and present an approach based on pro-gram dependence graphs (PDG). PDGs have been developed over the last 20 years as a standard device to represent information flow in a program, and today can handle realistic programs. In particular, our dependence graph generator for full Java bytecode is used as the basis for an IFC implementation which is more precise and needs less annotations than traditional approaches. We explain PDGs for sequential and multi-threaded pro-grams, and explain precision gains due to flow-, context-, and object-sensitivity. We then augment PDGs with a lattice of security levels and introduce the flow equations for IFC. We describe algorithms for flow computation in detail and prove their correctness. We then extend flow equations to handle declassification, and prove that our algorithm respects monotonicity of release. Finally, examples demonstrate that our implementation can check realistic sequential programs in full Java bytecode
JBLIF, a tool for non-interference analysis of java and java bytecode programs
Protecting sensitive information has become an important facet of software development.
One aspect of software security relies on information flow control (IFC), a technique for discovering information leaks in software. Despite the large body of work on language-based IFC, there are only few implementation of information flow analyzers for full-scale real programming languages. This lack signifies a gap between IFC theory and practice. This work introduces, a tool that helps to overpass this gap: JBLIF –acronym from Java Bytecode-Level Information Flow–, a tool capable of statically detect information leaks in systems coded in Java and/or Java bytecode.Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI
JRIF: Reactive Information Flow Control for Java
A reactive information flow (RIF) automaton for a value v specifies (i) allowed uses for v and (ii) the RIF automaton for any value that might be directly or indirectly derived from v. RIF automata thus specify how transforming a value alters how the result might be used. Such labels are more expressive than existing approaches for controlling downgrading. We devised a type system around RIF automata and incorporated it into Jif, a dialect of Java that supports a classic form of labels for information flow. By implementing a compiler for the resulting JRIF language, we demonstrate how easy it is to replace a classic information-flow type system by a more expressive RIF-based type system. We programmed two example applications in JRIF, and we discuss insights they provide into the benefits of RIF-based security labels.Supported in part by AFOSR grants F9550-06-0019 and FA9550-11-1-0137, National Science Foundation grants 0430161, 0964409, and CCF-0424422 (TRUST), ONR grants N00014-01- 1-0968 and N00014-09-1-0652, and grants from Microsoft
A Verified Information-Flow Architecture
SAFE is a clean-slate design for a highly secure computer system, with
pervasive mechanisms for tracking and limiting information flows. At the lowest
level, the SAFE hardware supports fine-grained programmable tags, with
efficient and flexible propagation and combination of tags as instructions are
executed. The operating system virtualizes these generic facilities to present
an information-flow abstract machine that allows user programs to label
sensitive data with rich confidentiality policies. We present a formal,
machine-checked model of the key hardware and software mechanisms used to
dynamically control information flow in SAFE and an end-to-end proof of
noninterference for this model.
We use a refinement proof methodology to propagate the noninterference
property of the abstract machine down to the concrete machine level. We use an
intermediate layer in the refinement chain that factors out the details of the
information-flow control policy and devise a code generator for compiling such
information-flow policies into low-level monitor code. Finally, we verify the
correctness of this generator using a dedicated Hoare logic that abstracts from
low-level machine instructions into a reusable set of verified structured code
generators
On Time-sensitive Control Dependencies
We present efficient algorithms for time-sensitive control dependencies (CDs). If statement y is time-sensitively control dependent on statement x, then x decides not only whether y is executed but also how many timesteps after x. If y is not standard control dependent on x, but time-sensitively control dependent, then y will always be executed after x, but the execution time between x and y varies. This allows us to discover, e.g., timing leaks in security-critical software.
We systematically develop properties and algorithms for time-sensitive CDs, as well as for nontermination-sensitive CDs. These work not only for standard control flow graphs (CFGs) but also for CFGs lacking a unique exit node (e.g., reactive systems). We show that Cytron’s efficient algorithm for dominance frontiers [10] can be generalized to allow efficient computation not just of classical CDs but also of time-sensitive and nontermination-sensitive CDs. We then use time-sensitive CDs and time-sensitive slicing to discover cache timing leaks in an AES implementation. Performance measurements demonstrate scalability of the approach
Timing Sensitive Dependency Analysis and its Application to Software Security
Ich präsentiere neue Verfahren zur statischen Analyse von
AusfĂĽhrungszeit-sensitiver Informationsflusskontrolle in Softwaresystemen.
Ich wende diese Verfahren an zur Analyse nebenläufiger Java
Programme, sowie zur Analyse von Ausführungszeit-Seitenkanälen in
Implementierungen kryptographischer Primitive.
Methoden der Informationsflusskontrolle zielen darauf ab, Fluss von
Informationen (z.B.: zwischen verschiedenen externen Schnittstellen
einer Software-Komponente) anhand expliziter Richtlinien einzuschränken.
Solche Methoden können daher zur Einhaltung sowohl
von Vertraulichkeit als auch Integrität eingesetzt werden. Der Ziel korrekter
statischer Programmanalysen in diesem Umfeld ist der Nachweis,
dass in allen Ausführungen eines gegebenen Programms die zugehörigen
Richtlinien eingehalten werden. Ein solcher Nachweis erfordert
ein Sicherheitskriterium, welches formalisiert, unter welchen
Bedingungen dies der Fall ist.
Jedem formalen Sicherheitskriterium entspricht implizit ein
Programm- und Angreifermodell. Einfachste Nichtinterferenz-Kriterien
beschreiben beispielsweise nur nicht-interaktive Programme. Dies
sind Programme die nur bei Beginn und Ende der AusfĂĽhrung Ein- und
Ausgaben erlauben. Im zugehörigen Angreifer-Modell kennt der
Angreifer das Programm, aber beobachtet nur bestimmte (öffentliche)
Aus- und Eingaben oder stellt diese bereit. Ein Programm ist nichtinterferent,
wenn der Angreifer aus seinen Beobachtungen keinerlei
RĂĽckschlĂĽsse auf geheime Aus- und Eingaben terminierender AusfĂĽhrungen
machen kann. Aus nicht-terminierenden AusfĂĽhrungen
hingegen sind dem Angreifer in diesem Modell Schlussfolgerungen
auf geheime Eingaben erlaubt.
Seitenkanäle entstehen, wenn einem Angreifer aus Beobachtungen realer
Systeme RĂĽckschlĂĽsse auf vertrauliche Informationen ziehen kann,
welche im formalen Modell unmöglich sind. Typische Seitenkanäle
(also: in vielen formalen Sicherheitskriterien unmodelliert) sind neben
Nichttermination beispielsweise auch Energieverbrauch und die AusfĂĽhrungszeit
von Programmen. Hängt diese von geheimen Eingaben
ab, so kann ein Angreifer aus der beobachteten AusfĂĽhrungszeit auf
die Eingabe (z.B.: auf den Wert einzelner geheimer Parameter) schlieĂźen.
In meiner Dissertation präsentiere ich neue Abhängigkeitsanalysen,
die auch Nichtterminations- und Ausführungszeitkanäle berücksichtigen.
In Hinblick auf Nichtterminationskanäle stelle ich neue Verfahren
zur Berechnung von Programm-Abhängigkeiten vor. Hierzu entwickle
ich ein vereinheitlichendes Rahmenwerk, in welchem sowohl
Nichttermination-sensitive als auch Nichttermination-insensitive Abhängigkeiten
aus zueinander dualen Postdominanz-Begriffen resultieren.
Für Ausführungszeitkanäle entwickle ich neue Abhängigkeitsbegriffe
und dazugehörige Verfahren zu deren Berechnung. In zwei Anwendungen
untermauere ich die These:
Ausführungszeit-sensitive Abhängigkeiten ermöglichen korrekte statische
Informationsfluss-Analyse unter Berücksichtigung von Ausführungszeitkanälen.
Basierend auf Ausführungszeit-sensitiven Abhängigkeiten entwerfe
ich hierfür neue Analysen für nebenläufige Programme.
Ausführungszeit-sensitive Abhängigkeiten sind dort selbst für
AusfĂĽhrungszeit-insensitive Angreifermodelle relevant, da dort interne
Ausführungszeitkanäle zwischen unterschiedlichen Ausführungsfäden
extern beobachtbar sein können. Meine Implementierung für
nebenläufige Java Programme basiert auf auf dem Programmanalyse-
System JOANA.
Außerdem präsentiere ich neue Analysen für Ausführungszeitkanäle
aufgrund mikro-architektureller Abhängigkeiten. Exemplarisch untersuche
ich Implementierungen von AES256 BlockverschlĂĽsselung. Bei einigen
Implementierungen fĂĽhren Daten-Caches dazu, dass die AusfĂĽhrungszeit
abhängt von Schlüssel und Geheimtext, wodurch diese
aus der AusfĂĽhrungszeit inferierbar sind. FĂĽr andere Implementierungen
weist meine automatische statische Analyse (unter Annahme
einer einfachen konkreten Cache-Mikroarchitektur) die Abwesenheit
solcher Kanäle nach
Securing Software in the Presence of Third-Party Modules
Modular programming is a key concept in software development where the program consists of code modules that are designed and implemented independently. This approach accelerates the development process and enhances scalability of the final product. Modules, however, are often written by third parties, aggravating security concerns such as stealing confidential information, tampering with sensitive data, and executing malicious code.Trigger-Action Platforms (TAPs) are concrete examples of employing modular programming. Any user can develop TAP applications by connecting trigger and action services, and publish them on public repositories. In the presence of malicious application makers, users cannot trust applications written by third parties, which can threaten users’ and platform’s security. We present SandTrap, a novel runtime monitor for JavaScript that can be used to securely integrate third-party applications. SandTrap enforces fine-grained access control policies at the levels of module, API, value, and context. We instantiate SandTrap to IFTTT, Zapier, and Node-RED, three popular JavaScript-driven TAPs, and illustrate how it enforces various policies on a set of benchmarks while incurring a tolerable runtime overhead. We also prove soundness and transparency of the monitoring framework on an essential model of Node-RED. Furthermore, nontransitive policies have been recently introduced as a natural fit for coarse-grained information-flow control where labels are specified at the level of modules. The flow relation does not need to be transitive, resulting in nonstandard noninterference and enforcement mechanism. We develop a lattice encoding to prove that nontransitive policies can be reduced to classical transitive policies. We also devise a lightweight program transformation that leverages standard flow-sensitive information-flow analyses to enforce nontransitive policies more permissively
From Formal Semantics to Verified Slicing : A Modular Framework with Applications in Language Based Security
This book presents a modular framework for slicing in the proof assistant Isabelle/HOL which is based on abstract control flow graphs. Building on such abstract structures renders the correctness results language-independent. To prove that they hold for a specific language, it remains to instantiate the framework with this language, which requires a formal semantics of this language in Isabelle/HOL. We show that formal semantics even for sophisticated high-level languages are realizable
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Exploring and Enforcing Application Security Guarantees via Program Dependence Graphs
We present Pidgin, a program analysis and understanding tool that allows developers to explore the information flows that exist in programs and specify and enforce security policies that restrict these information flows. Pidgin uses program-dependence graphs (PDGs) to precisely capture the information flows within a program. PDGs can be queried using a custom query language to explore and describe information flows in programs. A developer can specify strong information security policies by asserting that specific queries return no results (i.e., asserting the absence of certain information flows in the program). To check whether a program satisfies a security policy, a developer can simply evaluate the query against a program’s dependence graph. The query language is expressive, supporting a large class of precise, application-specific security guarantees. Pidgin can be used to explore information security guarantees in legacy programs, or to support the specification, enforcement, and modification of information security requirements during program development. We describe the design and implementation of Pidgin and report on using Pidgin both to explore security guarantees in existing open-source applications, and to specify and enforce security guarantees during application development.Engineering and Applied Science