Malicious Mobile Code

Chapter 11. Malicious ActiveX Controls

ActiveX is considered by many to be Microsoft’s answer to Sun’s Java language, but it is much more. Chapter 11 discusses ActiveX, digital signing, and Microsoft’s Authenticode security program.

ActiveX

Unlike Java, there isn’t an ActiveX programming language. Instead, ActiveX is a group of Microsoft software development tools that allow Windows programs to work across networks. Initially code-named “Sweeper,” the ActiveX architecture was formally announced at a San Francisco developer’s conference in early 1996, as Microsoft’s way to address the booming Internet programming market. At that conference, a slew of new tools were announced in support of ActiveX, including VBScript, the OLE Scripting Service, new APIs, Microsoft-developed Internet protocols, and ActiveX controls. Microsoft released these new tools as part of its ActiveX Software Development Kit (SDK). ActiveX is an extension of Microsoft’s 32-bit Windows API and Component Object Model (COM) models, and is now covered under the umbrella of the Distributed COM (DCOM) architecture. DCOM encompasses all programming tools that allow a Windows client to use a server program over a network. This distributed programming architecture is eventually culminating in Microsoft’s .NET initiative (covered in Chapter 15).

Although it began as a reactionary response to competitive pressures, ActiveX is really just a natural evolution of Microsoft APIs which allow data to be shared between applications. ...