Marc Stiegler

Polaris: virus-safe computing for Windows XP

It limits the damage a virus can do by using the operating systems own security mechanisms to enforce the Principle of Least Authority on individual applications.

Emily: A High Performance Language for Enabling Secure Cooperation

Well-designed security is required to enable cooperation with strangers and enemies. A number of prototype and experimental systems have demonstrated that object-capability programming languages can blend security with cooperation with little impact on programmer or user behavior. However, heretofore all programming languages in the object-capability family have had inadequate performance for many projects, leading programmers to use languages such as C++. We present Emily, a language with performance characteristics similar to those of C++, but with secure cooperation support that emerges from the enforcement of the Principle of Least Authority (POLA).

Not one click for security

Conventional wisdom holds that security must negatively affect usability. We have developed SCoopFS (Simple Cooperative File Sharing) as a demonstration that need not be so. SCoopFS ad- dresses the problem of sharing files, both with others and with ourselves across machines. Although SCoopFS provides server authentication, client authorization, and end-to-end encryption, the user never sees any of that. The user interface and underlying infrastructure are designed so that normal user acts of designation provide all the information needed to make the desired security decisions. While SCoopFS is a useful tool, it may be more impor- tant as a demonstration of the usability that comes from designing the infrastructure and user interaction together.