A language for information flow

Abstract

This paper presents λI, a language for dynamic tracking of information flow across multiple, interdependent dimensions of information. Typical dimensions of interest are integrity and confidentiality. λI supports arbitrary domain-specific policies that can be developed independently. λI treats information-flow metadata as a first-class entity and tracks information flow on the metadata itself (integrity on integrity, integrity on confidentiality, etc.).This paper also introduces IMPOLITE, a novel class of information-flow policies for λI. Unlike many systems, which only allow for absolute-security relations, IMPOLITE can model more realistic security policies based on relative-security relations. IMPOLITE demonstrates how policies on interdependent dimensions of information can be simultaneously enforced within λI's unified framework.