Applet Security Question?

phobos

For the past couple of months I have been debaiting with a lecturer of mine over wheather or not applets can read/write to a client's local drive. I have just found proof online, but I don't have the source. He is pretty ademant that I am wrong, but I know that it can be done.

Can anyone tell me how to do it (how it works), so I can go back and proove it to him ;-)

Thanx in advance

:-phobos-)

Evil Phil

If your running the applet from a web-browser you shouldn't be able to access the local hard-drive. If your running it from elsewhere then you may be able to.

If you found proof, can you post a link here?


[This message has been edited by Evil Phil (edited 15-06-2001).]

satchmo

I'm surprised a lecturer would tell you that, unless they only learnt JDK 1.1 and never bothered to look at anything else - using a signed applet and a policy file you can allow certain applets to read and/or write to your hard drive. The security architecture was revamped in JDK 1.2, as the 1.1 security was very basic.

http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Security/Signed/
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/security1.2/index.html

satchmo

It should be noted that I've never actually tried to implement any of this, so I'd be very interested in the results of any tests you do.

Evil Phil

You live and learn. I'll have a go and let you know how it turns out.