Architectures for Inlining Security Monitors in Web Application

Paper in proceeding, 2014

Securing JavaScript in the browser is an open and challenging problem. Code from pervasive third-party JavaScript libraries exacerbates the problem because it is executed with the same privileges as the code that uses the libraries. An additional complication is that the different stakeholders have different interests in the security policies to be enforced in web applications. This paper focuses on securing JavaScript code by inlining security checks in the code before it is executed. We achieve great flexibility in the deployment options by considering security monitors implemented as security-enhanced JavaScript interpreters. We propose architectures for inlining security monitors for JavaScript: via browser extension, via web proxy, via suffix proxy (web service), and via integrator. Being parametric in the monitor itself, the architectures provide freedom in the choice of where the monitor is injected, allowing to serve the interests of the different stake holders: the users, code developers, code integrators, as well as the system and network administrators. We report on experiments that demonstrate successful deployment of a JavaScript information-flow monitor with the different architectures.