A secure modular mobile agent system

Applications in mobile multi-agent systems require a high degree of confidence that code that runs inside the system will not be malicious and that any agents which are malicious can be identified and contained. Since the inception of mobile agents, this threat has been addressed using a multitude of techniques, but many of these implementations have only addressed concerns from the position of either the platform or the agent, and very few approaches have undertaken the problem of mobile agent security from both perspectives simultaneously. Furthermore, no middleware exists that facilitates provision of the required security qualities of mobile agent software while extensively focusing on easing the software development burden. In this paper, we introduce a mobile agent system that enhances security functionality by integrating core software and hardware assurance qualities, as well as addressing security concerns from the perspectives of both the platform and the agent.