A language for probabilistically oblivious computation
Abstract
An oblivious computation is one that is free of direct and indirect information leaks, e.g., due to observable differences in timing and memory access patterns. This paper presents Lambda Obliv, a core language whose type system enforces obliviousness. Prior work on type-enforced oblivious computation has focused on deterministic programs. Lambda Obliv is new in its consideration of programs that implement probabilistic algorithms, such as those involved in cryptography. Lambda Obliv employs a substructural type system and a novel notion of probability region to ensure that information is not leaked via the observed distribution of visible events. Probability regions support reasoning about probabilistic correlation and independence between values, and our use of probability regions is motivated by a source of unsoundness that we discovered in the type system of ObliVM, a language for implementing state of the art oblivious algorithms. We prove that Lambda Obliv's type system enforces obliviousness and show that it is expressive enough to typecheck advanced tree-based oblivious RAMs.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Dec 20, 2019
- Source ID
- 10.1145/3371118
Entities
People
- Chang Liu
- David Darais
- Ian Sweet
- Michael Hicks
Organizations
- Citadel Enterprise Americas LLC
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity
- National Science Foundation
- University of Maryland
- University of Vermont