In this talk, I will describe proof-carrying authorization (PCA), a new framework for distributed authorization. PCA represents all requests, statements, assertions, and certificates as statements in higher-order logic, and it requires a party requesting access to a resource to provide a machine-checkable proof that the request should be allowed. PCA is more general and more flexible than traditional distributed authorization systems. I will describe the theory of PCA, along with a prototype implementation of PCA-based access control for Web pages.

Bio: Ed Felten is an associate professor of computer science at Princeton University. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of Washington in 1993. His research interests are as follows: Computer and communications security, especially relating to consumer devices and software. Impact of the law on technology. Operating systems. Internet software. Security of mechanisms for distributing executable content over the Internet. Interaction of security with programming languages and operating systems. Distributed computing. Parallel computing architecture and software.