Rounding pointers: type safe capabilities with C++ meta programming

Abstract

Recent trends in secure operating systems indicate that an object-capability system is the security model with pre-eminent characteristics and practicality. Unlike traditional operating systems, which use a single global name space, object-capability systems name objects per protection domain. This allows a fine-grained isolation of the domains and follows the principle of least authority. Programming in such an environment differs considerably from traditional programming models. The fine-grained access to functionality requires a programming environment that supports the programmer when using a capability system. In this paper, we present an object-oriented framework that uses the C++ programming language to offer a frame-work for building and using operating-system components and applications.