An expert tour of security on the new Java 2 platform, Inside Java 2 Security will find an enthusiastic audience among advanced Java developers and system administrators. As the author notes during the general discussion on network security, safeguarding your system goes far beyond mere cryptography.
This book reviews multiple security threats and the strategies used to combat them, such as denial of service attacks, Trojan horses, and covert channels. In addition, it touches on the evolution of Java security from the restrictive days of the JDK 1.0 sandbox to the sophisticated security features available in Java 2, including a section that presents a list of 11 security bugs found in early versions of Java.
Because Java 2 security is now policy-based, it must be managed by system administrators as part of enterprise security. A chapter on Java 2 security presents the "big picture" as well as the classes used to implement policy-based security where developers can control access to an entire system like files, network resources, or runtime permissions on code. The book also discusses the rather primitive tools used for Java 2 security management such as the policytool utility. For advanced developers, further sections demonstrate how to create new permission classes and how to make JDK 1.1 security code migrate to Java 2.
A section on the Java Cryptography Architecture (JCA) shows that Java 2 supports the latest in encryption standards like SHA, DSA, RSA, and X.509 certificates. The text concludes with some well-considered predictions for the future of security on the Java platform. In the meantime, this book shows you what you will need to know about security when committing to Java 2 on the enterprise. Security is now part of the picture and will require both extra development time and administrative effort. --Richard Dragan