How secure is SmartFrog?
Without security, SmartFrog would be a near-perfect virus transmission engine! Fortunately, we have taken security seriously, and the system protects itself from malicious use using a public key infrastructure (PKI) system. Each node that participates in a SmartFrog runtime system is supplied with a certificate. Furthermore, all software components and system descriptions are “signed” with a certificate. The certificates are used to permit only validated nodes to participate in the runtime system, and those nodes will only manipulate components and descriptions that have been appropriately signed. Additionally, all network communication takes place using an encrypted transport. Currently there is a single-level security model, where nodes and components are either fully trusted or not trusted at all. Finer grained models of security are currently being researched.
