Pasquale Malacaria
Abstract
There is a clear intuitive connection between the notion of leakage of information in a program and concepts from information theory. This intuition has not been satisfactorily pinned down, until now. In particular, previous information-theoretic models of programs are imprecise, due to their overly conservative treatment of looping constructs. In this paper we provide the first precise information-theoretic semantics of looping constructs. Our semantics describes both the amount and rate of leakage; if either is small enough, then a program might be deemed "secure". Using the semantics we provide an investigation and classification of bounded and unbounded covert channels.
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Index Terms
- Assessing security threats of looping constructs
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