A Trusted Source-Based Model of Mobile Code Security

Mobile code might potentially be malicious. This paper presents a new approach called Trusted Source-Based Model (TSBM) to protect local system against malicious mobile code, which combines signatures and attribute certificates. This model helps establish trust between Mobile Code Producer (MCP) and Mobile Code Consumer (MCC) in a same domain. If both MCP and platform where mobile code produced are trustworthy, then mobile code can be attested to be trustworthy. This is achieved through introduction of a trusted third party, Security Center, which undertakes authorization for MCP and the "trusted sources" list management for MCC. We briefly discuss the issues associated with such framework.