Protection Reconfiguration for Reusable Software

Secure distributed applications often include code to authenticate users, verify access rights, and establish secure communication channels between software components (e.g., clients and servers). This code is often particular to the application and the context in which the application is used. Embedding protection definitions in the application code makes it difficult to reuse because different applications often have very different protection constraints. In this paper we argue that protection definitions should be specified separately from application code in order to facilitate protection reconfiguration and software reuse. This separation may be achieved by specifying protection definitions in an Protection Interface Definition Language, and is implemented by proxies installed between software components that are executing in different protection contexts (e.g., between client and server). Mechanisms for creation and dynamic installation of protection proxies have been implemente...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1998
• Where: CSMR
• Authors: Christian Damsgaard Jensen, Daniel Hagimont
• Keywords: Application Code, CSMR 1998, Protection Definitions, Software Components, Software Engineering