Software object security mechanism

Abstract

A software object security mechanism addresses system security risks that arise due to interactions between software objects. Conditions are imposed on the accessing of targets by accessing object instances according to attributes of the accessing object and the target object that is being accessed. One security feature is that an owner identifier is incorporated into objects. The owner identifier includes identification of the user, person, or entity (e.g., corporation) who or that creates the object, or identification of a computer system used by the user, person, or entity to create the object definition. The owner identifier provides a basis for distinguishing the creator of an object from the user of that object. Another security feature is a set of access authorizations that allow different access rights to be made available to different object creators. In one implementation the access authorizations are All, Owner, and Exemplar. Another security feature is that exemplar identifiers are encoded into properties and methods in which the properties and methods are defined. Since exemplars may be authored by anyone and may be changed at run time, these security features insure that inheritance from exemplars of questionable lineage is safe. These security features prevent an exemplar in the hierarchy for an object or object instance from damaging the instance data.