An Instrumenting Compiler for Enforcing Confidentiality in Low-Level Code Article Swipe

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Ajay Brahmakshatriya , Piyus Kedia , Derrick McKee , Pratik Bhatu , Deepak Garg , Akash Lal , Aseem Rastogi ·

YOU? · · 2017 · Open Access ·

We present an instrumenting compiler for enforcing data confidentiality in low-level applications (e.g. those written in C) in the presence of an active adversary. In our approach, the programmer marks secret data by writing lightweight annotations on top-level definitions in the source code. The compiler then uses a static flow analysis coupled with efficient runtime instrumentation, a custom memory layout, and custom control-flow integrity checks to prevent data leaks even in the presence of low-level attacks. We have implemented our scheme as part of the LLVM compiler. We evaluate it on the SPEC micro-benchmarks for performance, and on larger, real-world applications (including OpenLDAP, which is around 300KLoC) for programmer overhead required to restructure the application when protecting the sensitive data such as passwords. We find that performance overheads introduced by our instrumentation are moderate (average 12% on SPEC), and the programmer effort to port OpenLDAP is only about 160 LoC.

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Computer science Compiler Programmer Spec# Control flow Instrumentation (computer programming) Operating system Undo Overhead (engineering) Programming language Embedded system

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Type: preprint
Language: en
Landing Page: http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0000-AC98-3
PDF: http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0000-AC98-3
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Cited By: 1
References: 39
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Title: An Instrumenting Compiler for Enforcing Confidentiality in Low-Level Code

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Type: preprint

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Language: en

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Publication year: 2017

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Publication date: 2017-11-30

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Authors: Ajay Brahmakshatriya, Piyus Kedia, Derrick McKee, Pratik Bhatu, Deepak Garg, Akash Lal, Aseem Rastogi

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Landing page: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0000-AC98-3

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Concepts: Computer science, Compiler, Programmer, Spec#, Control flow, Instrumentation (computer programming), Operating system, Undo, Overhead (engineering), Programming language, Embedded system

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Cited by: 1

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abstract_inverted_index.application	114
abstract_inverted_index.definitions	38
abstract_inverted_index.implemented	78
abstract_inverted_index.lightweight	34
abstract_inverted_index.performance	126
abstract_inverted_index.restructure	112
abstract_inverted_index.applications	11, 100
abstract_inverted_index.control-flow	62
abstract_inverted_index.performance,	95
abstract_inverted_index.instrumenting	3
abstract_inverted_index.confidentiality	8
abstract_inverted_index.instrumentation	131
abstract_inverted_index.instrumentation,	55
abstract_inverted_index.micro-benchmarks	93
cited_by_percentile_year
countries_distinct_count	1
institutions_distinct_count	7
sustainable_development_goals[0].id	https://metadata.un.org/sdg/16
sustainable_development_goals[0].score	0.46000000834465027
sustainable_development_goals[0].display_name	Peace, Justice and strong institutions
citation_normalized_percentile