Accessing Native methods from a Java Applet
by Sanket Bakshi, s.bakshi@ebsolutech.com |
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Previous
section: The Java Plug-in
o Digital Certificates and Certification
Authorities
o Creating and installing your own digital
certificates
As we
have seen in the earlier section, with the use of the Java Plug-in, the trusted
applets are allowed full access to the system resources. The trusted applets
are allowed access as good as a local application. To make the applet trusted,
the developer needs to sign them using a digital certificate. This section will
give a general idea about what digital certificates are.
Digital
certificates are online documents that authenticate user identities, provide
the codes that encrypt and decrypt messages over the Web, and ensure that
transmitted data has not been altered. A Certificate Authority (CA) is the
Web-based mechanism that distributes and revokes certificates and guarantees
data integrity by digitally "signing" a user's certificate.
The sole
purpose of the Certification Authority is to vouch for the person who is using
the digital certificates. Based on the information provided by the person who
wants to use the certificates, the Certification Authority ensures the end user
that the data that is signed is not tampered since it has left the source.
Digital Certificates never trust any code or neither do they determine that the
code is not harmful for the system. Digital Certificates when used display a
warning saying that the signed code or data is said to be safe by the signer.
The end user should allow the code or data only if he believes the signer to be
true. Certification Authorities do not take any risk in case of damage due to
any certified code or data.
Certificates
are generally issued by the Certification Authorities. Still, utilities are
available using which you can create a phony certificate. For a phony
certificate, you yourself act as a Certification Authority. It is marked as self-issued, rather than vouched for by VeriSign
or Thawte.
The tools discussed in the later section will allow you to create
and install your own digital certificates.
Next section: Tools to
be Used
Table of Contents
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