%R 10.4204/EPTCS.203.6
%T A Typed Model for Dynamic Authorizations
%J Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science
%P 73-84
%O Proceedings Eighth International Workshop on Programming Language Approaches to Concurrency- and Communication-cEntric Software, PLACES 2015, London, UK, 18th April 2015.
%V 203
%L eprints3690
%X Security requirements in distributed software systems are inherently dynamic. In the case of authorization policies, resources are meant to be accessed only by authorized parties, but the authorization to access a resource may be dynamically granted/yielded. We describe ongoing work on a model for specifying communication and dynamic authorization handling. We build upon the pi-calculus so as to enrich communication-based systems with authorization specification and delegation; here authorizations regard channel usage and delegation refers to the act of yielding an authorization to another party. Our model includes: (i) a novel scoping construct for authorization, which allows to specify authorization boundaries, and (ii) communication primitives for authorizations, which allow to pass around authorizations to act on a given channel. An authorization error may consist in, e.g., performing an action along a name which is not under an appropriate authorization scope. We introduce a typing discipline that ensures that processes never reduce to authorization errors, even when authorizations are dynamically delegated.
%I Open Publishing Association
%A Silvia Ghilezan
%A Svetlana Jak?i?
%A Jovanka Pantovi?
%A Jorge A. P?rez
%A Hugo Torres Vieira
%D 2015