The SkyNet Virus Why It Is Unstoppable; How To Stop It By Marc Stiegler
Marc Stiegler – -- – (928) Principle of Least Authority/Privilege POLA Thousands of years old
Marc Stiegler – -- – (928) The Last POLA Violation Humanity Makes Congressman: If you activate SkyNet, it can destroy this supervirus, right? General Brewster: Yes…but while it is activated, it will control all our nuclear missiles. Congressman: But you will control SkyNet, right? General Brewster: [long, long pause]…Yes.
Marc Stiegler – -- – (928) Lip Service Firewalls Access Control Lists Certificates
Marc Stiegler – -- – (928) Every Application is Launched with Grossly Excessive Authority Universal Security Problem: Ambient Authority
Marc Stiegler – -- – (928) Ubiquitous Excess Authority Guarantees Abuse John Connor: General Brewster, SkyNet is the virus Yahoo Instant Messenger
Marc Stiegler – -- – (928) Solution: No Default Authority Only get granted authority by creators, invokers User Interface Disaster? Java Web Start, Proof By Disaster
Marc Stiegler – -- – (928) Solution’s Solution: Bundle Designation with Authority File Dialog Drag/Drop Etc.
Marc Stiegler – -- – (928) The Golden Triangle Java Applets (impotent) Java Web Start Multi- level Security Virus Checkers Java Apps (insecure) You can have it all! (unusable)
Marc Stiegler – -- – (928) POLA Inside the Application
Marc Stiegler – -- – (928) Object-Level Authority Bundling Granovetter Diagram Absolute Encapsulation Only source of authority Alice says: bob.foo(carol)
Marc Stiegler – -- – (928) Object POLA Boundaries: Almost Free Taken from “Capability Based Financial Instruments” Proceedings of Financial Cryptography ’00 Security Is Easy At Finest Grain, Hard Anywhere Else Digital Money with a Capability Secure Language in 1 page
Marc Stiegler – -- – (928) Trustworthy Programmers Do Not Mean Trustworthy Software
Marc Stiegler – -- – (928) Ubiquitous POLA Means Trustworthy Software
Marc Stiegler – -- – (928) Economic Proof Of Unstoppability Ross Anderson Fix 95/100 security bugs, cracker who finds only 10 bugs still gets one you missed Correct for conventional security regimes (perimeter security model) False! For Ubiquitous POLA Defense In Depth
Marc Stiegler – -- – (928) Sara Connor: No Fate Except What We Make “It is unthinkable that another thirty years will go by without one of two occurrences: either there will be horrific cyber disasters…or the available technology will be delivered…in products that provide effective security.” --Karger&Schell References:
Marc Stiegler – -- – (928) Demo