Optimal assignment of mobile agents for software authorization and protection

In this paper, a model for software authorization and protection in mobile code systems is proposed. In the model, a software is partitioned into obje cts, called mobile agents, and the privileges to access these agents are se parated and distributed to the user's local system and a number of trusted servers called trusted computational proxies. The execution of a program (s oftware) is conducted by cooperation of the agents and the proxies that con tain them. Two agents are dependent if there is a message passing between t hem. To reduce the risk of software being attacked,dependent agents are dis tributed to different proxies. In this way, if a proxy is compromized, mini mal information of the software will be disclosed. Methods for assigning ag ents to proxies are also proposed to minimize, under the security constrain ts, computation load of the proxies as well as communication load between t he user's local system and proxies. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All righ ts reserved.