Secure multi-execution of web scripts: Theory and practice

Abstract

Secure Multi-Execution (SME) is a precise and general information flow control mechanism that was claimed to be a good fit for implementing information flow security in browsers. We validate this claim by developing FlowFox, the first fully functional web browser that implements an information flow control mechanism for web scripts based on the technique of secure multi-execution. We provide evidence for the security of FlowFox by proving non-interference for a formal model of the essence of FlowFox, and by showing how it stops real attacks. We provide evidence of usefulness by showing how FlowFox subsumes many ad-hoc script-containment countermeasures developed over the last years. An experimental evaluation on the Alexa top-500 web sites provides evidence for compatibility, and shows that FlowFox is compatible with the current web, even on sites that make intricate use of JavaScript.

The performance and memory cost of FlowFox is substantial (a performance cost of around 20% on macro benchmarks for a simple two-level policy), but not prohibitive. Our prototype implementation shows that information flow enforcement based on secure multi-execution can be implemented in full-scale browsers. It can support powerful, yet compatible policies refining the same-origin-policy in a way that is compatible with existing websites.