[69] in java-interest
Re: definition of security and safe?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Brian.G.Beuning@att.com)
Mon May 8 23:29:15 1995
From: Brian.G.Beuning@att.com
Date: Mon, 8 May 95 18:01:12 CDT
To: java-interest@java.Eng.Sun.COM, cmcmanis@scndprsn.Eng.Sun.COM
> >I guess my basic question is
> >``What are the Java definitions of "security" and "safe"?''
>
> Safe: The property whereby the "host environment" is protected from
> damage by code, either malicious or simply broken.
>
> Secure: The property whereby access to "actions" in the host environment
> is withheld from code that is untrusted.
>
> Trust: The subjective property of how much access a user is willing to
> cede to a program after knowing, with a high level of confidence,
> the origin, author, and validity of a piece of code.
Thanks for the very detailed answer. So the other way to look at
my original e-mail would be ``What is "damage"?''. I would look
at all of these as "damage".
1. granting root access to my machine to another machine on the internet
2. reformatting a disk
3. rebooting a machine
4. allowing Java code the same permissions as the user of Hotjava
5. displaying rude pictures to unsuspecting users
6. ditto for sound files
7. allowing Java code to hog system resources (CPU time, swap space,
memory, etc.) without control
8. allowing Java code to exit Hotjava if I don't want it exited
It sounds like Java draws the line between 4 and 5.
BTW, I think the definition of safe used by Java is the same as
that used by the other "safe" web languages out there. So I don't
mean to pick on Java. In fact I like Java, it is really cool.
Thanks,
Brian Beuning
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