Wyvern: Impacting Software Security via Programming Language Design

Darya Kurilova; Alex Potanin; Jonathan Aldrich

doi:10.1145/2688204.2688216

Wyvern: Impacting Software Security via Programming Language Design

Darya Kurilova, Alex Potanin, Jonathan Aldrich

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Breaches of software security affect millions of people, and therefore it is crucial to strive for more secure software systems. However, the effect of programming language design on software security is not easily measured or studied. In the absence of scientific insight, opinions range from those that claim that programming language design has no effect on security of the system, to those that believe that programming language design is the only way to provide "high-assurance software." In this paper, we discuss how programming language design can impact software security by looking at a specific example: the Wyvern programming language. We report on how the design of the Wyvern programming language leverages security principles, together with hypotheses about how usability impacts security, in order to prevent command injection attacks. Furthermore, we discuss what security principles we considered in Wyvern's design.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	PLATEAU 2014 - Proceedings of the 2014 ACM SIGPLAN Workshop on Evaluation and Usability of Programming Languages and Tools, Part of SPLASH 2014
Place of Publication	New York
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Pages	57-58
Number of pages	2
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450322775
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/2688204.2688216
Publication status	Published - 21 Oct 2014
Externally published	Yes
Event	5th Workshop on Evaluation and Usability of Programming Languages and Tools, PLATEAU 2014 - Portland, United States Duration: 21 Oct 2014 → …

Conference

Conference	5th Workshop on Evaluation and Usability of Programming Languages and Tools, PLATEAU 2014
Country/Territory	United States
City	Portland
Period	21/10/14 → …

Access to Document

10.1145/2688204.2688216

Cite this

@inproceedings{8c0c7d857d784e5395e9271e00cff291,

title = "Wyvern: Impacting Software Security via Programming Language Design",

abstract = "Breaches of software security affect millions of people, and therefore it is crucial to strive for more secure software systems. However, the effect of programming language design on software security is not easily measured or studied. In the absence of scientific insight, opinions range from those that claim that programming language design has no effect on security of the system, to those that believe that programming language design is the only way to provide {"}high-assurance software.{"} In this paper, we discuss how programming language design can impact software security by looking at a specific example: the Wyvern programming language. We report on how the design of the Wyvern programming language leverages security principles, together with hypotheses about how usability impacts security, in order to prevent command injection attacks. Furthermore, we discuss what security principles we considered in Wyvern's design.",

author = "Darya Kurilova and Alex Potanin and Jonathan Aldrich",

note = "Publisher Copyright: Copyright {\textcopyright} 2014 ACM.; 5th Workshop on Evaluation and Usability of Programming Languages and Tools, PLATEAU 2014 ; Conference date: 21-10-2014",

year = "2014",

month = oct,

day = "21",

doi = "10.1145/2688204.2688216",

language = "English",

pages = "57--58",

booktitle = "PLATEAU 2014 - Proceedings of the 2014 ACM SIGPLAN Workshop on Evaluation and Usability of Programming Languages and Tools, Part of SPLASH 2014",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)",

address = "United States",

}

Kurilova, D, Potanin, A & Aldrich, J 2014, Wyvern: Impacting Software Security via Programming Language Design. in PLATEAU 2014 - Proceedings of the 2014 ACM SIGPLAN Workshop on Evaluation and Usability of Programming Languages and Tools, Part of SPLASH 2014. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), New York, pp. 57-58, 5th Workshop on Evaluation and Usability of Programming Languages and Tools, PLATEAU 2014, Portland, United States, 21/10/14. https://doi.org/10.1145/2688204.2688216

Wyvern: Impacting Software Security via Programming Language Design. / Kurilova, Darya; Potanin, Alex; Aldrich, Jonathan.
PLATEAU 2014 - Proceedings of the 2014 ACM SIGPLAN Workshop on Evaluation and Usability of Programming Languages and Tools, Part of SPLASH 2014. New York: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2014. p. 57-58.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - Wyvern: Impacting Software Security via Programming Language Design

AU - Kurilova, Darya

AU - Potanin, Alex

AU - Aldrich, Jonathan

PY - 2014/10/21

Y1 - 2014/10/21

N2 - Breaches of software security affect millions of people, and therefore it is crucial to strive for more secure software systems. However, the effect of programming language design on software security is not easily measured or studied. In the absence of scientific insight, opinions range from those that claim that programming language design has no effect on security of the system, to those that believe that programming language design is the only way to provide "high-assurance software." In this paper, we discuss how programming language design can impact software security by looking at a specific example: the Wyvern programming language. We report on how the design of the Wyvern programming language leverages security principles, together with hypotheses about how usability impacts security, in order to prevent command injection attacks. Furthermore, we discuss what security principles we considered in Wyvern's design.

AB - Breaches of software security affect millions of people, and therefore it is crucial to strive for more secure software systems. However, the effect of programming language design on software security is not easily measured or studied. In the absence of scientific insight, opinions range from those that claim that programming language design has no effect on security of the system, to those that believe that programming language design is the only way to provide "high-assurance software." In this paper, we discuss how programming language design can impact software security by looking at a specific example: the Wyvern programming language. We report on how the design of the Wyvern programming language leverages security principles, together with hypotheses about how usability impacts security, in order to prevent command injection attacks. Furthermore, we discuss what security principles we considered in Wyvern's design.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84930983401

U2 - 10.1145/2688204.2688216

DO - 10.1145/2688204.2688216

M3 - Conference Paper

AN - SCOPUS:84930983401

SP - 57

EP - 58

BT - PLATEAU 2014 - Proceedings of the 2014 ACM SIGPLAN Workshop on Evaluation and Usability of Programming Languages and Tools, Part of SPLASH 2014

PB - Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

CY - New York

T2 - 5th Workshop on Evaluation and Usability of Programming Languages and Tools, PLATEAU 2014

Y2 - 21 October 2014

ER -

Wyvern: Impacting Software Security via Programming Language Design

Abstract

Conference

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this