Designing and Implementing the OP and OP2 Web Browsers

Abstract

Current web browsers are plagued with vulnerabilities, providing hackers with easy access to computer systems via browser-based attacks. Browser security efforts that retrofit existing browsers have had limited success because the design of modern browsers is fundamentally flawed. To enable more secure web browsing, we design and implement a new browser, called the OP web browser, that attempts to improve the state-of-the-art in browser security. We combine operating system design principles with formal methods to design a more secure web browser by drawing on the expertise of both communities. Our design philosophy is to partition the browser into smaller subsystems and make all communication between subsystems simple and explicit. At the core of our design is a small browser kernel that manages the browser subsystems and interposes on all communications between them to enforce our new browser security features.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
May 01, 2011
Source ID
10.1145/1961659.1961665

Entities

People

  • Chris Grier
  • Samuel T. King
  • Shuo Tang

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • Division of Computer and Network Systems
  • National Science Foundation
  • Office of Naval Research
  • University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Database Systems and Applications
  • Strategic Security Studies