Checking secure information flow in java bytecode by code transformation and standard bytecode verification

  • Authors:
  • C. Bernardeschi;N. De Francesco;G. Lettieri;L. Martini

  • Affiliations:
  • Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy;Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy;Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy;Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy

  • Venue:
  • Software—Practice & Experience
  • Year:
  • 2004

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Abstract

A method is presented for checking secure information flow in Java bytecode, assuming a multilevel security policy that assigns security levels to the objects. The method exploits the type-level abstract interpretation of standard bytecode verification to detect illegal information flows. We define an algorithm transforming the original code into another code in such a way that a typing error detected by the Verifier on the transformed code corresponds to a possible illicit information flow in the original code. We present a prototype tool that implements the method and we show an example of application.