Type-based Declassification for Free

Abstract

This work provides a study to demonstrate the potential of using off-the-shelf programming languages and their theories to build sound language-based-security tools. Our study focuses on information flow security encompassing declassification policies that allow us to express flexible security policies needed for practical requirements. We translate security policies, with declassification, into an interface for which an unmodified standard typechecker can be applied to a source program---if the program typechecks, it provably satisfies the policy. Our proof reduces security soundness---with declassification---to the mathematical foundation of data abstraction, Reynolds' abstraction theorem.