Epic's Centralized Applet Security

July 1997 / Reviews / Novera Composes Epic for Java / Epic's Centralized Applet Security

The original Java security model that browsers like Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer used was simple: Applets could communicate only with the HTTP server that offered them to the world. That limitation made it essential to have a remote resource manager such as Novera's Epic if the applets were ever going to do much.
Another approach is to relax the security model at the browser. Netscape and Microsoft have examined ways of letting th e browser have various shades of network access. For instance, the browser may be able to send mail to any machine on the network, but do FTP only with its host. The user would be able to change the security setup checkboxes to give access to these applets as they choose.
The danger with this method, of course, is that it is too general. One applet may ask you to turn on networkwide mail access for a legitimate reason, but another applet could then turn around and send fake e-mail from your machine while animating some scene in the browser. This possibility makes Novera's centralized security mechanism a necessity.

Security of Epic Proportions
illustration_link (9 Kbytes)
Java applets rely on the originating server for network services.

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Matthew Wilson
My approach to software engineering is far more pragmatic than it is theoretical--and no language better exemplifies this than C++.

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