Trustworthy Systems

A component architecture for system extensibility

Authors

Antony Edwards

    School of Computer Science and Engineering
    UNSW,
    Sydney 2052, Australia

Abstract

Component-based programming has shown itself to be a natural way of constructing extensible software. Well-defined interfaces, encapsulation, late binding and polymorphism promote extensibility, yet despite this synergy, components have not been widely employed at the systems level. This is primarily due to the failure of existing component technologies to provide the protection and performance required of systems software. This thesis presents the design, implementation and performance of a component model for system extensions that allow users to to create and customise system services.

Effective access control is a crucial feature of any system. In an extensible system, however, where potentially any user can create and modify system services, access control is even more critical. Despite the increasing importance of access control due to extensibility and increased connectivity, the protection mechanisms provided by existing component systems remain primitive and ad hoc. This thesis presents the design, implementation and performance of a complete access control model for extensible systems.

BibTeX Entry

  @mastersthesis{Edwards:be,
    address          = {Sydney, Australia},
    author           = {Antony Edwards},
    keywords         = {interface, security, mandatory access control, forwarding, aggregation, delegation, Mungi},
    month            = nov,
    note             = {Available from publications page at \url{http://ts.data61.csiro.au/}},
    paperUrl         = {https://trustworthy.systems/publications/theses_public/00/Edwards%3Abe.ps.gz},
    school           = {School of Computer Science and Engineering},
    title            = {A Component Architecture for System Extensibility},
    year             = {2000}
  }

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