Visualization of Permission Checks in Java Using Static Analysis

Abstract

The security manager in Java 2 is a runtime access control mechanism. Whenever an access permission to critical resources is requested, the security manager inspects a call stack to examine whether the program has appropriate access permissions or not. This run-time permission check called stack inspection enforces access-control policies that associate access rights with the class that initiates the access. In this paper, we develop a visualization tool which helps programmers enforce security policy effectively into programs. It is based on the static permission check analysis which approximates permission checks statically which must succeed or fail at each method. Using the visualization system, programmers can modify programs and policy files if necessary, as they examine how permission checks and their stack inspection are performed. This process can be repeated until the security policy is enforced correctly.