Abstract
Type-safe, high-level languages such as Java ensure that a wide class of failures, including buffer overruns and format string attacks, simply cannot happen. Unfortunately, our computing infrastructure is built with type-unsafe low-level languages such as C, and it is economically impossible to throw away our existing operating systems, databases, routers, etc. and re-code them all in Java.
Fortunately, a number of recent advances in static analysis, language design, compilation, and run-time systems have given us a set of tools for achieving type safety for legacy C code. In this talk, I will survey some of the progress that has been made in the last few years, and focus on the issues that remain if we are to achieve type safety, and more generally, security for our computing infrastructure.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Spafford, E.: The Internet Worm Program: An Analysis. Purdue Technical Report CSD-TR-823 (1988)
Moore, D., Paxson, V., Savage, S., Shannon, C., Staniford, S., Weaver, N.: The Spread of the Sapphire/Slammer Worm, http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/nweaver/sapphire/
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Morrisett, G. (2003). Achieving Type Safety for Low-Level Code. In: Palamidessi, C. (eds) Logic Programming. ICLP 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2916. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-24599-5_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-24599-5_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-20642-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-24599-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive