Type-based distributed access control vs. untyped attackers

Tom Chothia, Dominic Duggan

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

This paper considers what happens when a system erroneously places trust in an attacker. More precisely we consider untyped attackers inside a distributed system in which security is enforced by the type system. Our Key-Based Decentralised Label Model for distributed access control combines a weak form of information flow control with cryptographic type casts. We extend our model to allow inside attackers by using three sets of type rules. The first set is for honest principals. The second set is for attackers; these rules require that only communication channels can be used to communicate and express our correctness conditions. The third set of type rules are used to type processes that have become corrupted by the attackers. We show that the untyped attackers can leak their own data and disrupt the communication of any principals that place direct trust in an attacker, but no matter what the attackers try, they cannot obtain data that does not include at least one attacker in its access control policy.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationFormal Aspects in Security and Trust - Thrid International Workshop, FAST 2005, Revised Selected Papers
Pages203-216
Number of pages14
DOIs
StatePublished - 2006
Event3rd International Workshop on Formal Aspects in Security and Trust, FAST 2005 - Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Duration: 18 Jul 200519 Jul 2005

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume3866 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference3rd International Workshop on Formal Aspects in Security and Trust, FAST 2005
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityNewcastle upon Tyne
Period18/07/0519/07/05

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