Object-oriented Access Control in Jarrah

Abstract

Given the sensitivity of the data stored in many information systems and the use of networks to support distributed applications, it is increasingly important to enable precise control of who can access the data in what way. Standard per-method access control lists are not sufficient to capture the complexity of the access constraints which arise if the concept of minimal access is taken seriously. In this paper we describe and justify the design of the access control aspect of the persistent object-oriented language Jarrah, a Java extension for programming secure distributed applications.