That's not an adequate system, according to Mike Walker, director of
worldwide research and development at Vodafone Group PLC, who
recommended improvements at JavaOne here this week. Walker is also the
chairman of a security committee set up by the 3rd Generation
Partnership Project, a wireless industry group.
"This sandbox approach to security is no security at all. It's a joke,
so just forget it," Walker said during a presentation on Java and
wireless security here.
That the first release of a new technical specification may be lacking
in security features won't surprise many developers, and an update to
MIDP that attempts to fix the holes is expected to be approved by the
Java Community Process in the coming months. But the call for tighter
security highlights challenges that still face the delivery of wireless
Java applets, which is being feted here as the industry's next big
money-maker.
What's needed, Walker said, is a domain-based security framework that
can ensure that Java applets delivered to a mobile device come from a
legitimate source, and that they haven't been modified in any way as
they travel over a network.
The public key encryption system could address part of the problem, he
said. A developer writing a Java applet, such as a game or a currency
converter, would add a digital signature using a unique, private
encryption key. When the applet arrives at the device, the private key
would be matched with its corresponding public key to ensure it arrived
from a trusted source.
In the execution environment, additional technologies can be implemented
to manage which functions on a device an applet is allowed to invoke, he
said.
A proposed upgrade to MIDP, with the working title MIDP NG, for Next
Generation, was submitted last year to the Java Community Process. It is
available now for public review and could be approved as early as May,
Walker said. The upgrade, backed by leading handset makers and
operators, includes many of the features he proposed.
Sun Microsystems Inc., Java's creator, denied any shortcomings in MIDP
1.0. The specification is "perfectly adequate" for the types of devices
in use today, said Eric Chu, a group marketing manager with Sun. More
than 18 million Java handsets are already in use worldwide, he noted.
Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc., an early leader in wireless data services,
added only a layer of SSL (secure socket layer) encryption for its
Java-based services, he said.
"You have to balance security with usability," Chu said. "Right now we
treat all applications as untrusted. Once the market starts to grow and
mature and we get a better understanding of the usage model, then we can
start to beef it up."
Walker had a different view. Without improvements to MIDP's security
features, the potential for breaches is great, he said. Among other
problems, malicious applets could be used to gather personal information
about users stored on a phone, such as a credit card number. They could
also be programmed to invoke fee-based services without a user's
permission.
Operators can add their own security technologies for running Java
applets, but having a standard implementation is important to ensure
that applets can run on handsets from a variety of vendors and across
multiple networks, he said. Part of the onus falls on wireless
operators, who together are hammering out a way to implement the
standard once it's available, he added.
Most importantly, nothing taxing should be required of customers, Walker
said. PC users are accustomed to loading security patches and upgrading
their software, but phone users expect everything to be done on their
behalf, he said. The most that users want to see is a prompt warning
them that they're about to launch a service for which they'll have to
pay extra.
Walker's remarks were geared mainly toward cell phones, but he said the
same principles apply to Java applets delivered to handheld computers
and other gadgets. The industry needs to deal with the issue quickly and
effectively, because users are unforgiving and will shun wireless data
services if they don't work well the first time around.
"If any one of these things goes wrong, we will destroy confidence, and
the opportunity mobile code offers will vanish," he said. "It will
vaporize in no time at all."
