05-06-2012, 12:48 PM
Introduction of Mobile Agents
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What is an agent
A program (“software agent”), e.g.,
Personal assistant (mail filter, scheduling)
Information agent (tactical picture agent)
E-commerce agent (stock trader, bidder)
Recommendation agent (Firefly, Amazon.com)
A program that can
interact with users, applications, and agents
collaborate with the user
Software agents help with repetitive tasks
Definition
In a broad sense, an agent is any program that acts on behalf of a (human) user. A mobile agent then is a program which represents a user in a computer network, and is capable of migrating autonomously from node to node, to performs some computation on behalf of the user.
Assumptions about computer systems violated by mobile agents
Whenever a program attempts some action, we can easily identify a person to whom that action can be attributed, and it is safe to assume that that person intends the action to be taken.
Only persons that are know to the system can execute programs on the system.
There is one security domain corresponding to each user; all actions within that domain can be treated the same way.
Single-user systems require no security.
Essentially all programs are obtained from easily identifiable and generally trusted sources
The users of a given piece of software are restrained by law and custom from various actions against the manufacturer’s interests.
Significant security threats come from attackers running programs with the intent of accomplishing unauthorized results.
Programs cross administrative boundaries only rarely, and only when people intentionally transmit them.
A given instance of a program runs entirely on one machine; processes do not cross administrative boundaries at all.
A given program runs on only one particular operating system.
Computer security is provided by the operating system.