• Speaker: Stephen Chong (Harvard)
  • Date: October 12th, 2012 (Friday)
  • Room: CIT 368
  • Title: "A Secure Concurrent Language"
  • Abstract:
We demonstrate that a practical concurrent language can be extended in a natural way with information security mechanisms that provably enforce strong information security guarantees. We extend the X10 concurrent programming language with coarse-grained information-flow control. Central to X10 concurrency abstractions is the notion of a place: a container for data and computation. We associate a security level with each place, and restrict each place to store only data appropriate for that security level. When places interact only with other places at the same security level, then our security mechanisms impose no restrictions. When places of differing security levels interact, our information security analysis prevents potentially dangerous information flows, including information flow through covert scheduling channels. The X10 concurrency mechanisms simplify reasoning about information flow in concurrent programs. This work is joint with Stefan Muller.

Steve Chong is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science in the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Steve’s research focuses on programming languages, information security, and the intersection of these two areas. He received a PhD from Cornell University, and a bachelor’s degree from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.