Symbolic Timed Observational Equivalence

Abstract: Intruders can infer properties of a system by measuring the time it takes for the system to respond to some request of a given protocol, that is, by exploiting time side channels. These properties may help intruders distinguish whether a system is a honeypot or concrete system helping him avoid defense mechanisms, or track a user among others violating his privacy. Observational equivalence is the technical machinery used for verifying whether two systems are distinguishable. Moreover, efficient symbolic methods have been developed for automating the check of observational equivalence of systems. This paper introduces a novel definition of timed observational equivalence which also distinguishes systems according to their time side channels. Moreover, as our definition uses symbolic time constraints, it can be automated by using SMT-solvers.