Claire A Griffin

US Patent:

59580500, Sep 28, 1999

Filed:

Dec 26, 1996

Appl. No.:

8/777328

Inventors:

Claire Griffin - San Francisco CA
Douglas Barnes - Oakland CA

Assignee:

Electric Communities - Cupertino CA

International Classification:

G06F 1214
G06F 1300

US Classification:

713200

Abstract:

A trust manager examines each new class before it is allowed to execute by examining a policy file which includes data structures defining security policies of the user system, a certificate repository for storing a plurality of certificates, a certificate being a data record which is digitally signed and which certifies claims relevant to a security evaluation, a code examiner adapted to analyze the portion of code to determine potential resource use of the portion of code and a trust evaluator adapted to evaluate certificate requirements of the portion of code based on policy rules extracted from the policy file and the potential resource use specified by the code examiner. The trust evaluator also determines, from certificates from the certificate repository and a code identifier identifying the portion of code, whether execution of the portion of code is allowed by the policy rules given the potential resource use, the code supplier and applicable certificates. Certificates and policies can be specified in hierarchical form, so that some levels of security can be delegated to trusted entities.