Author:

Keywords:

software security, compilation, full abstraction, hypervisors, Science & Technology, Technology, Computer Science, Theory & Methods, Engineering, Electrical & Electronic, Computer Science, Engineering, PROTECTION

Abstract:

We present a secure (fully abstract) compilation scheme to compile an object-based high-level language to low-level machine code. Full abstraction is achieved by relying on a fine-grained program counter-based memory access protection scheme, which is part of our low-level target language. We discuss why standard compilers fail to provide full abstraction and introduce enhancements needed to achieve this goal. We prove that our enhanced compilation scheme provides full abstraction from our high-level source language to our low-level target language. Lastly, we show by means of a prototype implementation that our low-level language with fine-grained memory access control can be realized efficiently on modern commodity platforms.