A secure compiler for ML modules

Abstract

Many functional programming languages compile to lowlevel languages such as C or assembly. Numerous security properties of those compilers, however, apply only when the compiler compiles whole programs. This paper presents a compilation scheme that securely compiles a standalone module of ModuleML, a light-weight version of an ML with modules, into untyped assembly. The compilation scheme is secure in that it reflects the abstractions of a ModuleML module, for every possible piece of assembly code that it interacts with. This is achieved by isolating the compiled module through a low-level memory isolation mechanism and by dynamically type checking its interactions. We evaluate an implementation of the compiler on relevant test scenarios.