Type-based information flow analysis for $π$-calculus with a dynamically extensible security lattice

Abstract

We develop a type system for secure information flow where new security levels can be created and inserted into the security lattice dynamically, i.e., even in the middle of an execution of a system. Our system is formalized by extending Kobayashi's type-based secure information flow analysis for Milner's pi-calculus, which is one of the most expressive models (or "languages") supporting both sequential and concurrent computations, with concise syntax, reduction-based semantics, and bisimulation equivalence as a robust formalization of secrecy as non-interference. The development required careful treatment of extensions of lattices themselves as well as deliberate generalization from the simple 2-element lattice (consisting of only High and Low) in the original system.