Security and middleware

The security features of current middleware platforms, like Enterprise Java Beans and CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture), are either simple and limited or complex and difficult to use. In both cases are the provided features static and do not support the flexibility needed in a wide range of applications. This paper introduces and approach to flexible security mechanisms in the context of a reflective middleware architecture. The reflective middleware OOPP (Open-ORB Python Prototype) is a component and capsule (container) based platform providing its reflective features through a set of distinct meta-models. Flexible security mechanisms are provided using a specialized programming language called Obol. In OOPP the flexible security mechanisms based on Obol is a subset of reflective features of the middleware platform. Obol and its machinery is a subset of one distinct aspect or meta-model of the middleware platform.