Visual Basic 2008 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach

12.1. Allow Partially Trusted Code to Use Your Strong-Named Assembly

Problem

You need to write a shared assembly that is accessible to code that is not fully trusted. By default, the runtime does not allow partially trusted code to access the types and members contained in a strong-named assembly.

Solution

Apply the assembly-level attribute System.Security.AllowPartiallyTrustedCallersAttribute to your shared assembly.

How It Works

To minimize the security risks posed by malicious code, the runtime does not allow assemblies granted only partial trust to access strong-named assemblies. This restriction dramatically reduces the opportunity for malicious code to attack your system, but the reasoning behind such a heavy-handed approach requires some ...