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StkTokens: Enforcing well-bracketed control flow and stack encapsulation using linear capabilities

Part of: Secure Compilation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2021

LAU SKORSTENGAARD ,
DOMINIQUE DEVRIESE Open the ORCID record for DOMINIQUE DEVRIESE [Opens in a new window]  and
LARS BIRKEDAL
LAU SKORSTENGAARD
Affiliation:
Toitware, Aarhus, Denmark (e-mail: lau.skorstengaard@gmail.com)
DOMINIQUE DEVRIESE
Affiliation:
Department of Computer Science, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium (e-mail: dominique.devriese@vub.be)
LARS BIRKEDAL
Affiliation:
Department of Computer Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark (e-mail: birkedal@cs.au.dk)
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Abstract

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We propose and study StkTokens: a new calling convention that provably enforces well-bracketed control flow and local state encapsulation on a capability machine. The calling convention is based on linear capabilities: a type of capabilities that are prevented from being duplicated by the hardware. In addition to designing and formalizing this new calling convention, we also contribute a new way to formalize and prove that it effectively enforces well-bracketed control flow and local state encapsulation using what we call a fully abstract overlay semantics.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Functional Programming , Volume 31 , 2021 , e9
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Footnotes

*

Research performed while the author was affiliated with Aarhus University.

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