Information Flow Control Using the Java Virtual Machine Tool Interface (JVMTI)

We present an information flow control (IFC) system which monitors information leakage in single-threaded Java programs. Our implementation uses the Java Virtual Machine Tool Interface (JVMTI) and adapts the algorithms of Le Guernic et al. for this purpose. We also offer a generic rule set for enforcing IFC. One advantage of our approach is that it is dynamic, so that we are only concerned with the security of the current execution of a program, not all possible executions. Our system tracks flow at the level of primitive Java fields, allowing precise control over the information that is monitored. Further, no modifications to the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) are needed for our system to work.