Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
459695 | Journal of Network and Computer Applications | 2007 | 16 Pages |
Despite its many benefits, mobile agent technology results in significant security threats from agents and hosts. This paper presents a protocol which protects mobile agents from malicious hosts. This protocol combines four concepts: the cooperation between a mobile agent and a sedentary agent; the reference execution (reliable platforms which shelter our cooperating sedentary agents); the cryptography and the digital signature to ensure safe inter-agent communication and time-limited execution (timeout). A dynamic approach which makes use of a timer to make it possible to detect a mobile agent's code re-execution was used. The attack on agent permanent modification was also dealt with. Moreover, the protocol is sufficiently robust so that it is durable and fault tolerant.