A secure PLAN

  • Authors:
  • M. Hicks;A. D. Keromytis;J. M. Smith

  • Affiliations:
  • Maryland Univ., College Park, MD, USA;-;-

  • Venue:
  • IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part C: Applications and Reviews
  • Year:
  • 2003

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Abstract

Active networks, being programmable, promise greater flexibility than current networks. Programmability, however, may introduce safety and security risks. This correspondence describes the design and implementation of a security architecture for the active network PLANet. Security is obtained with a two-level architecture that combines a functionally restricted packet language, PLAN, with an environment of general-purpose service routines governed by trust management. In particular, a technique is used which expands or contracts a packet's service environment based on its level of privilege, termed namespace-based security. The design and implementation of an active-network firewall and virtual private network is used as an application of the security architecture. Measurements of the system show that the addition of the firewall imposes an approximately 34% latency overhead and as little as a 6.7% space overhead to incoming packets.