Mobile agent security and reliability issues in electronic commerce.

Chan, Hing-wing.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-79).Abstracts in English and Chinese.Abstract --- p.iAbstract (Chinese) --- p.iiAcknowledgements --- p.iiiContents --- p.ivList of Figures --- p.viiList of Tables --- p.viiiChapter Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1Chapter 1.1. --- Mobile Agents and the Problems --- p.1Chapter 1.2. --- Approach --- p.3Chapter 1.3. --- Contributions --- p.3Chapter 1.4. --- Organization of This Thesis --- p.4Chapter Chapter 2. --- The Mobile Code Paradigm --- p.6Chapter 2.1. --- Mobile Code: an Alternative to Client/Servers --- p.6Chapter 2.1.1. --- Classification of Mobile Codes --- p.8Chapter 2.1.2. --- Applications of Mobile Code Paradigms --- p.10Chapter 2.1.3. --- Supporting Implementation Technologies --- p.11Chapter 2.2. --- The Problems of Mobile Code --- p.13Chapter 2.2.1. --- Security Issues in Distributed Systems --- p.13Chapter 2.2.2. --- Security Concerns of Mobile Code Paradigms --- p.15Chapter 2.2.2.1. --- Security Attacks --- p.15Chapter 2.2.2.2. --- Security Mechanisms --- p.17Chapter 2.2.2.3. --- A Security Comparison between Paradigms --- p.20Chapter 2.2.3. --- Security Features of Implementation Technologies --- p.20Chapter 2.2.3.1. --- Security Services of Message-based Technology --- p.21Chapter 2.2.3.2. --- Security Services of Object-based Technology --- p.21Chapter 2.2.3.3. --- Security Services of Mobile Technology --- p.22Chapter 2.2.3.4. --- A Comparison of Technologies on Security Services --- p.22Chapter 2.3. --- Chapter Summary --- p.23Chapter Chapter 3. --- "Mobile Agents, Its Security and Reliability Issues" --- p.24Chapter 3.1. --- Advantages and Applications of Mobile Agents --- p.24Chapter 3.2. --- Security Concerns of Mobile Agents --- p.26Chapter 3.2.1. --- Host Security --- p.27Chapter 3.2.2. --- Agent Security --- p.27Chapter 3.3. --- Techniques to Protect Mobile Agents --- p.29Chapter 3.3.1. --- Protected Agent States --- p.29Chapter 3.3.2. --- Mobile Cryptography --- p.30Chapter 3.4. --- Reliability Concerns of Mobile Agents --- p.31Chapter Chapter 4. --- Security and Reliability Modeling for Mobile Agents --- p.32Chapter 4.1. --- Attack Model and Scenarios --- p.33Chapter 4.2. --- General Security Models --- p.34Chapter 4.2.1. --- Security and Reliability --- p.34Chapter 4.2.2. --- Deriving Security Models --- p.36Chapter 4.2.3. --- The Time-to-Effort Function --- p.38Chapter 4.3. --- A Security Model for Mobile Agents --- p.40Chapter 4.4. --- Discussion of the Proposed Model --- p.43Chapter 4.5. --- A Reliability Model for Mobile Agents --- p.43Chapter Chapter 5. --- The Concordia Mobile Agent Platform --- p.46Chapter 5.1. --- Overview --- p.46Chapter 5.2. --- Special Features --- p.47Chapter Chapter 6. --- SIAS: A Shopping Information Agent System --- p.49Chapter 6.1. --- What the System Does --- p.49Chapter 6.2. --- System Design --- p.50Chapter 6.2.1. --- Object Description --- p.50Chapter 6.2.2. --- Flow Description --- p.52Chapter 6.3. --- Implementation --- p.53Chapter 6.3.1. --- Choice of Programming Language --- p.53Chapter 6.3.2. --- Choice of Mobile Agent Platform --- p.53Chapter 6.3.3. --- Other Implementation Details --- p.54Chapter 6.4. --- Snapshots --- p.54Chapter 6.5. --- Security Design of SIAS --- p.57Chapter 6.5.1. --- Security Problems of SIAS --- p.58Chapter 6.5.2. --- Our Solutions to the Problems --- p.60Chapter 6.5.3. --- Evaluation of the Secure SIAS --- p.64Chapter 6.5.3.1. --- Security Analysis --- p.64Chapter 6.5.3.2. --- Performance Vs Query Size --- p.65Chapter 6.5.3.3. --- Performance Vs Number of Hosts --- p.67Chapter 6.6. --- Reliability Design of SIAS --- p.69Chapter 6.6.1. --- Reliability Problems of SIAS --- p.69Chapter 6.6.2. --- Our Solutions to the Problems --- p.70Chapter 6.6.3. --- Evaluation of the Reliable SIAS --- p.71Chapter Chapter 7. --- Conclusions and Future Work --- p.73Bibliography --- p.7