Designing a Secure and Reconfigurable Meta-Object Protocol

Alexandre Oliva - Luiz Eduardo Buzato

Laboratório de Sistemas Distribuídos
Instituto de Computação
Universidade Estadual de Campinas

February 1999

{oliva,buzato}@dcc.unicamp.br

Abstract:

Running code downloaded from the network raises several security issues. Unlike the Java ^TM programming language, most existing reflective architectures have failed to address these issues. There is a clear need for mechanisms to impose some discipline on the interactions between objects and meta-objects, so as to retain or improve the security mechanisms offered by programming languages. While the ability to dynamically associate objects with meta-objects is essential for developing flexible and adaptable reflective applications, reliability depends on mechanisms to regulate reconfigurations. In the design of Guaraná, a language-independent meta-object protocol, we have attempted to address these issues. This papers describes and justifies some of the decisions we have made in order to allow developers of reflective applications to balance flexibility and security.