Publications
In-Depth Enforcement of Dynamic Integrity Taint Analysis
PLAS '16, Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Workshop on Programming Languages and Analysis for Security , , 2016
Status: Published
Citations:
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Abstract: Dynamic taint analysis can be used as a defense against low-integrity data in applications with untrusted user interfaces. An important example is defense against XSS and injection attacks in programs with web interfaces. Data sanitization is commonly used in this context, and can be treated as a precondition for endorsement in a dynamic integrity taint analysis. However, sanitization is often incomplete in practice. We develop a model of dynamic integrity taint analysis for Java that addresses imperfect sanitization with an in-depth approach. To avoid false positives, results of sanitization are endorsed for access control (aka prospective security), but are tracked and logged for auditing and accountability (aka retrospective security). We show how this heterogeneous prospective/retrospective mechanism can be specified as a uniform policy, separate from code. We then use this policy to establish correctness conditions for a program rewriting algorithm that instruments code for the analysis. The rewriting itself is a model of existing, efficient Java taint analysis tools.
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Bongard's work focuses on understanding the general nature of cognition, regardless of whether it is found in humans, animals or robots. This unique approach focuses on the role that morphology and evolution plays in cognition. Addressing these questions has taken him into the fields of biology, psychology, engineering and computer science.
Continuous Self-Modeling. Science 314, 1118 (2006). [Journal Page]

Danforth is an applied mathematician interested in modeling a variety of physical, biological, and social phenomenon. He has applied principles of chaos theory to improve weather forecasts as a member of the Mathematics and Climate Research Network, and developed a real-time remote sensor of global happiness using messages from Twitter: the Hedonometer. Danforth co-runs the Computational Story Lab with Peter Dodds, and helps run UVM's reading group on complexity.

Laurent studies the interaction of structure and dynamics. His research involves network theory, statistical physics and nonlinear dynamics along with their applications in epidemiology, ecology, biology, and sociology. Recent projects include comparing complex networks of different nature, the coevolution of human behavior and infectious diseases, understanding the role of forest shape in determining stability of tropical forests, as well as the impact of echo chambers in political discussions.

Hines' work broadly focuses on finding ways to make electric energy more reliable, more affordable, with less environmental impact. Particular topics of interest include understanding the mechanisms by which small problems in the power grid become large blackouts, identifying and mitigating the stresses caused by large amounts of electric vehicle charging, and quantifying the impact of high penetrations of wind/solar on electricity systems.

Bagrow's interests include: Complex Networks (community detection, social modeling and human dynamics, statistical phenomena, graph similarity and isomorphism), Statistical Physics (non-equilibrium methods, phase transitions, percolation, interacting particle systems, spin glasses), and Optimization(glassy techniques such as simulated/quantum annealing, (non-gradient) minimization of noisy objective functions).