Integrating security and real-time requirements using covert channel capacity

Database systems for real-time applications must satisfy timing constraints associated with transactions in addition to maintaining data consistency. In addition to real-time requirements, security is usually required in many applications. Multi-level security requirements introduce a new dimension to transaction processing in real-time database systems. In this paper, we argue that, due to the conflicting goals of each requirement, tradeoffs need to be made between security and timeliness. We first define mutual information, a measure of the degree to which security is being satisfied by a system. A secure two-phase locking protocol is then described and a scheme is proposed to allow partial violations of security for improved timeliness. Analytical expressions for the mutual information of the resultant covert channel are derived, and a feedback control scheme is proposed that does not allow the mutual information to exceed a specified upper bound. Results showing the efficacy of the scheme obtained through simulation experiments are also discussed.