SWIPE: eager erasure of sensitive data in large scale systems software

Abstract

We describe SWIPE, an approach to reduce the life time of sensitive, memory resident data in large scale applications written in C. In contrast to prior approaches that used a delayed or lazy approach to the problem of erasing sensitive data, SWIPE uses a novel eager erasure approach that minimizes the risk of accidental sensitive data leakage. SWIPE achieves this by transforming a legacy C program to include additional instructions that erase sensitive data immediately after its intended use. SWIPE is guided by a highly-scalable static analysis technique that precisely identifies the locations to introduce erase instructions in the original program. The programs transformed using SWIPE enjoy several additional benefits: minimization of leaks that arise due to data dependencies; erasure of sensitive data with minimal developer guidance; and negligible performance overheads.