Language-Based Security

Modern attacks often succeed at circumventing standard security mechanisms. While operating-system security policies are low-level (such as access control policies, protecting particular files), many attacks are high-level, or application-level (such as email worms that pass by access controls pretending to be executed on behalf of a mailer application). Because applications are typically specified and implemented in programming languages, application-level security is a part of the more general area of language-based security. A direct benefit of language-based security is the ability to naturally express security policies and enforcement mechanisms using the techniques of the well-developed area of programming languages.