Abstract Certification of Global Non-Interference in Rewriting Logic

Abstract: Non-interference is a semantic program property that assigns confidentiality levels to data objects and prevents illicit information flows from occurring from high to low security levels. In this paper, we present a novel security model for global non-interference which approximates non-interference as a safety property. We also propose a certification technique for global non-interference of complete Java classes based on rewriting logic, a very general logical and semantic framework that is efficiently implemented in the high-level programming language Maude. Starting from an existing Java semantics specification written in Maude, we develop an extended, information-flow Java semantics that allows us to correctly observe global non-interference policies. In order to achieve a finite state transition system, we develop an abstract Java semantics that we use for secure and effective non-interference Java analysis. The analysis produces certificates that are independently checkable and are small enough to be used in practice.