Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 18:00:20 -0700
Message-Id: <199804280100.SAA02497@games.eng.sun.com>
From: Li Gong <gong@games.eng.sun.com>
To: Doug Bunting <dougb@intuit.com>
Subject: Re: Integrity of the Java Virtual Machine
In-Reply-To: Doug Bunting's mail of Mon, 27 April, 1998
There is a chicken and egg problem. For the downloaded applet to do
any verification, it has to run on a JVM, so this JVM must be trusted.
So unless there is some way to get a minimal trusted JVM to run the
applet first, there is no way for the applet to verify anything
really about the underlying platform.
Li
--Doug Bunting writes: > Hello, > > It seems that the Java Security team is hard at work adding Java > features to extend the sandbox and to provide more secure communication > back to a web server. But, I've seen nothing which addresses a more > general problem. > > How would a downloaded applet confirm it's running in a Virtual Machine > which has not been corrupted? In a world containing malicious Active X > and virus programs, an applet should have some way to know its > environment is secure. With the new Java Activator / plug in > initiatives, JavaSoft seems to be in a prime position to provide > something here. > > Examples I've thought about include using signed Jar files for the local > (trusted) class files, maintaining a checksum for any executable files > used in the installation and checks for rogue threads still running from > an earlier web page. > > thanx, > doug >