Type-based confinement

Confinement properties impose a structure on object graphs which can be used to enforce encapsulation properties. From a practical point of view, encapsulation is essential for building secure object-oriented systems as security requires that the interface between trusted and untrusted components of a system be clearly delineated and restricted to the smallest possible set of operations and data structures. This paper investigates the notion of package-level confinement and proposes a type system that enforces this notion for a call-by-value object calculus as well as a generic extension thereof. We give a proof of soundness of this type system, and establish links between this work and related research in language-based security.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2006
• Where: JFP
• Authors: Tian Zhao, Jens Palsberg, Jan Vitek
• Keywords: JFP 2006, Secure Object-oriented Systems, Smallest Possible Set, Type System