Java Security - Softcover

Oaks, Scott

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1565924037 ISBN 13: 9781565924031

Publisher: O'Reilly Media, 1998

Synopsis

Java's most striking claim is that it provides a secure programming environment. However, despite lots of discussion, few people understand precisely what Java's claims mean and how it backs up those claims. Java Security is an in-depth exploration aimed at developers, network administrators, and anyone who needs to work with or understand Java's security mechanisms. It discusses in detail what security does and doesn't mean, what Java's default security policies are, and how to create and implement your own policies.In doing so, Java Security provides detailed coverage of security managers, class loaders, the access controller, and much of the java.security package. It discusses message digests, certificates, and digital signatures, showing you how to use Java's facilities for signing classes or to implement your own signature facility. It shows you how to write a class loader that recognizes signed classes, verifies the signature, and cooperates with a security manager to grant additional privileges. It also discusses the problem of managing cryptographic keys and shows you how to implement your own key management systems.Java Security is an essential book for everyone using Java in real-world software. If you're deploying software written in Java, you need to know how to grant your classes the privileges they need, without granting privileges to untrusted classes. You need to know how to protect your systems against intrusion and corruption. Java provides the tools; this book shows you how to use them.

About this title

Review

Scott Oakes' Java Security is extraordinary both for its technical depth and its readability. It provides the Java programmer with a complete overview of the Java security architecture and security classes, plus a wealth of detailed information and code examples for specific implementations. The book opens with a clear discussion of what Java security is, how the various Java sandbox models work, and how Java applications and applets execute within the security model. The following chapters look in depth at the elements of the Java security architecture: language rules, class loaders, the security manager, the access controller, and permission objects. All these chapters provide detailed information on implementation, as well as an excellent explanation of the role of each feature within the entire security picture. The second half of the book covers cryptographic features in the Java security package (much enhanced in Java 1.2) and how Java programs work with code that performs authentication and encryption. Here, you'll find detailed chapters on message digests, keys and certificates, key management, digital signatures, and the Java Cryptography Extensions. Anyone who needs to understand Java security, but especially those who will implement security features in Java applications, will want to own this book.

About the Author

Scott Oaks is a Java Technologist at Sun Microsystems, where he has worked since 1987. While at Sun, he has specialized in many disparate technologies, from the SunOS kernel to network programming and RPCs. Since 1995, hes focused primarily on Java and bringing Java technology to end-users. Scott also authored OReillys Java Security, Java Threads and Jini in a Nutshell titles.

Edition details

• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 1565924037
• ISBN 13: 9781565924031
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 469