Java Security

Organization of This Book

This book is organized in a bottom-up fashion: we begin with the very low-level aspects of Java security and then proceed to the more advanced features.

Chapter 1

This chapter gives an overview of the security model (the Java sandbox) used in Java applications and sets the stage for the rest of the book.

Chapter 2

This chapter discusses the memory protections built into the Java language, how those protections provide a measure of security, and how they are enforced by the bytecode verifier.

Chapter 3

This chapter discusses the class loader, which is the class that reads in Java class files and turns them into classes. From a security perspective, the class loader is important in determining where classes originated and whether or not they were digitally signed (and if so, by whom), so the topic of class loaders appears throughout this book.

Chapter 4

This chapter discusses the security manager, which is the primary interface to application-level security in Java. The security manager is responsible for arbitrating access to all local resources: files, the network, printers, etc.

Chapter 5

The access controller is the basis for security manager implementations in Java 1.2. This chapter discusses how to use the access controller to achieve fine-grained levels of security in your application.

Chapter 6

This chapter ties together the information on the security manager and the access controller and shows how to implement one or both to achieve a desired security ...