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SeLINQ: tracking information across application-database boundaries

Authors:

Daniel Schoepe,

Andrei SabelfeldAuthors Info & Claims

ICFP '14: Proceedings of the 19th ACM SIGPLAN international conference on Functional programming

Pages 25 - 38

https://doi.org/10.1145/2628136.2628151

Published: 19 August 2014 Publication History

Abstract

The root cause for confidentiality and integrity attacks against computing systems is insecure information flow. The complexity of modern systems poses a major challenge to secure end-to-end information flow, ensuring that the insecurity of a single component does not render the entire system insecure. While information flow in a variety of languages and settings has been thoroughly studied in isolation, the problem of tracking information across component boundaries has been largely out of reach of the work so far. This is unsatisfactory because tracking information across component boundaries is necessary for end-to-end security.

This paper proposes a framework for uniform tracking of information flow through both the application and the underlying database. Key enabler of the uniform treatment is recent work by Cheney et al., which studies database manipulation via an embedded language-integrated query language (with Microsoft's LINQ on the backend). Because both the host language and the embedded query languages are functional F#-like languages, we are able to leverage information-flow enforcement for functional languages to obtain information-flow control for databases "for free", synergize it with information-flow control for applications and thus guarantee security across application-database boundaries. We develop the formal results in the form of a security type system that includes a treatment of algebraic data types and pattern matching, and establish its soundness. On the practical side, we implement the framework and demonstrate its usefulness in a case study with a realistic movie rental database.

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Cited By

Zhang WPanda AShenker SBaumann ACrooks NSchwarzkopf M(2023)Access Control for Database Applications: Beyond Policy EnforcementProceedings of the 19th Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems10.1145/3593856.3595905(223-230)Online publication date: 22-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3593856.3595905
Mangipudi SChuprikov PEugster PViering MSavvides S(2023)Generalized Policy-Based Noninterference for Efficient Confidentiality-PreservationProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/35912317:PLDI(267-291)Online publication date: 6-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3591231
Ferreira MBrito TSantos JSantos N(2023)RuleKeeper: GDPR-Aware Personal Data Compliance for Web Frameworks2023 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP)10.1109/SP46215.2023.10179395(2817-2834)Online publication date: May-2023
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Index Terms

SeLINQ: tracking information across application-database boundaries
1. Security and privacy
  1. Systems security
    1. Information flow control
    2. Operating systems security

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cover image ACM Conferences

ICFP '14: Proceedings of the 19th ACM SIGPLAN international conference on Functional programming

August 2014

390 pages

ISBN:9781450328739

DOI:10.1145/2628136

General Chair:
Johan Jeuring
Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands
,
Program Chair:
Manuel M.T. Chakravarty
University of New South Wales, Australia

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 49, Issue 9
ICFP '14
September 2014
361 pages
ISSN:0362-1340
EISSN:1558-1160
DOI:10.1145/2692915
Editors:
Mark W. Bailey
Hamilton College, Clinton, NY
,
Rajeev Balasubramonian
University of Utah
,
Al Davis
University of Utah
,
Sarita Adve
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champ
Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2014 ACM.

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Published: 19 August 2014

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ICFP'14: ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming

September 1 - 6, 2014

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ICFP '14 Paper Acceptance Rate 28 of 85 submissions, 33%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 333 of 1,064 submissions, 31%

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Cited By

Zhang WPanda AShenker SBaumann ACrooks NSchwarzkopf M(2023)Access Control for Database Applications: Beyond Policy EnforcementProceedings of the 19th Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems10.1145/3593856.3595905(223-230)Online publication date: 22-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3593856.3595905
Mangipudi SChuprikov PEugster PViering MSavvides S(2023)Generalized Policy-Based Noninterference for Efficient Confidentiality-PreservationProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/35912317:PLDI(267-291)Online publication date: 6-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3591231
Ferreira MBrito TSantos JSantos N(2023)RuleKeeper: GDPR-Aware Personal Data Compliance for Web Frameworks2023 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP)10.1109/SP46215.2023.10179395(2817-2834)Online publication date: May-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/SP46215.2023.10179395
Timakov A(2022)Information Flow Control in Software DB Units Based on Formal VerificationProgramming and Computer Software10.1134/S036176882204005348:4(265-285)Online publication date: 18-Jul-2022
https://doi.org/10.1134/S0361768822040053
Oak AAhmadian ABalliu MSalvaneschi G(2021)Language Support for Secure Software Development with Enclaves2021 IEEE 34th Computer Security Foundations Symposium (CSF)10.1109/CSF51468.2021.00037(1-16)Online publication date: Jun-2021
https://doi.org/10.1109/CSF51468.2021.00037
Calzavara SFocardi RGrimm NMaffei MTempesta M(2020)Language-Based Web Session Integrity2020 IEEE 33rd Computer Security Foundations Symposium (CSF)10.1109/CSF49147.2020.00016(107-122)Online publication date: Jun-2020
https://doi.org/10.1109/CSF49147.2020.00016
Wang FKo RMickens JLorch JYu M(2019)RiverbedProceedings of the 16th USENIX Conference on Networked Systems Design and Implementation10.5555/3323234.3323285(615-629)Online publication date: 26-Feb-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3323234.3323285
Salvaneschi GKöhler MSokolowski DHaller PErdweg SMezini M(2019)Language-integrated privacy-aware distributed queriesProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/33605933:OOPSLA(1-30)Online publication date: 10-Oct-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3360593
Parker JVazou NHicks M(2019)LWeb: information flow security for multi-tier web applicationsProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/32903883:POPL(1-30)Online publication date: 2-Jan-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3290388
Guarnieri MBalliu MSchoepe DBasin DSabelfeld A(2019)Information-Flow Control for Database-Backed Applications2019 IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy (EuroS&P)10.1109/EuroSP.2019.00016(79-94)Online publication date: Jun-2019
https://doi.org/10.1109/EuroSP.2019.00016
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