Extensible Security Architectures for Java

Report ID: TR-546-97
Author: Balfanz, Dirk / Felten, Edward W. / Wallach, Dan S. / Dean, Drew
Date: 1997-04-00
Pages: 16
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Abstract:

Mobile code technologies such as Java, JavaScript, and ActiveX generally limit all programs to a single security policy. However, software-based protection can allow for more flexible security models, with potentially significant performance improvements over traditional hardware-based solutions. We describe and analyze three implementation strategies for interposing flexible security policies in software-based security systems. Implementations exist for all three strategies: several vendors have adapted capabilities to Java, Netscape Communicator extended Java's stack introspection, and we built a type-hiding system as an add-on to Microsoft Internet Explorer.