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Precise, dynamic information flow for database-backed applications

Authors:

Thomas H. Austin,

Armando Solar-Lezama,

Cormac Flanagan,

Stephen ChongAuthors Info & Claims

PLDI '16: Proceedings of the 37th ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation

Pages 631 - 647

https://doi.org/10.1145/2908080.2908098

Published: 02 June 2016 Publication History

Abstract

We present an approach for dynamic information flow control across the application and database. Our approach reduces the amount of policy code required, yields formal guarantees across the application and database, works with existing relational database implementations, and scales for realistic applications. In this paper, we present a programming model that factors out information flow policies from application code and database queries, a dynamic semantics for the underlying $^JDB$ core language, and proofs of termination-insensitive non-interference and policy compliance for the semantics. We implement these ideas in Jacqueline, a Python web framework, and demonstrate feasibility through three application case studies: a course manager, a health record system, and a conference management system used to run an academic workshop. We show that in comparison to traditional applications with hand-coded policy checks, Jacqueline applications have 1) a smaller trusted computing base, 2) fewer lines of policy code, and 2) reasonable, often negligible, additional overheads.

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Index Terms

Precise, dynamic information flow for database-backed applications
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages
      1. Language features

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cover image ACM Conferences

PLDI '16: Proceedings of the 37th ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation

June 2016

726 pages

ISBN:9781450342612

DOI:10.1145/2908080

General Chair:
Chandra Krintz
University of California at Santa Barbara, USA
,
Program Chair:
Emery Berger
University of Massachusetts at Amherst, USA

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 51, Issue 6
PLDI '16
June 2016
726 pages
ISSN:0362-1340
EISSN:1558-1160
DOI:10.1145/2980983
Editor:
Andy Gill
University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
Issue’s Table of Contents

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Published: 02 June 2016

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3694715.3695984
Ileri AZeldovich NChlipala AKaashoek F(2024)Probability from Possibility: Probabilistic Confidentiality for Storage Systems Under Nondeterminism2024 IEEE 37th Computer Security Foundations Symposium (CSF)10.1109/CSF61375.2024.00041(96-111)Online publication date: 8-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/CSF61375.2024.00041
Hublet FBasin DKrstić S(2024)Enforcing the GDPRComputer Security – ESORICS 202310.1007/978-3-031-51476-0_20(400-422)Online publication date: 11-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51476-0_20
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
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Lin WZhang LZhang HShao KZhang MXie T(2022)TaintSQL: Dynamically Tracking Fine-Grained Implicit Flows for SQL Statements2022 IEEE 33rd International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE)10.1109/ISSRE55969.2022.00012(1-12)Online publication date: Oct-2022
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McCall MBichhawat AJia L(2022)Compositional Information Flow Monitoring for Reactive Programs2022 IEEE 7th European Symposium on Security and Privacy (EuroS&P)10.1109/EuroSP53844.2022.00036(467-486)Online publication date: Jun-2022
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Wong CSantiesteban PKästner CLe Goues CSpinellis DGousios GChechik MDi Penta M(2021)VarFix: balancing edit expressiveness and search effectiveness in automated program repairProceedings of the 29th ACM Joint Meeting on European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering10.1145/3468264.3468600(354-366)Online publication date: 20-Aug-2021
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Renner JSanchez-Stern ABrown FLerner SStefan DFreund SYahav E(2021)Scooter & Sidecar: a domain-specific approach to writing secure database migrationsProceedings of the 42nd ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation10.1145/3453483.3454072(710-724)Online publication date: 19-Jun-2021
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Polinsky IDatta PBates AEnck WLobo JDi Pietro RChowdhury O(2021)SCIFFS: Enabling Secure Third-Party Security Analytics using Serverless ComputingProceedings of the 26th ACM Symposium on Access Control Models and Technologies10.1145/3450569.3463567(175-186)Online publication date: 11-Jun-2021
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Polikarpova NStefan DYang JItzhaky SHance TSolar-Lezama A(2020)Liquid information flow controlProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/34089874:ICFP(1-30)Online publication date: 3-Aug-2020
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