ReSeCo: Reliability and Security of Distributed Software Components

Distributed computational infrastructures such as the Internet, banking networks, telephone networks, and digital video infrastructures; aim at providing services globally and uniformly. However, these infrastructures consist of autonomous devices that are heterogeneous in their platform (operating systems, communication protocols, libraries) and their resources (memory, power autonomy, connectivity) can vary significantly. For guaranteeing a global and uniform access to services, it is therefore necessary that devices are extensible with components needed to execute the required services. In this respect, distributed computational infrastructures escape the scope of those computational models which permeate mobile code, the Grid, or agents, and which impose a sharp separation between untrusted mobile applications, and the fixed and trusted platform upon which they execute. In addition, they raise significant issues concerning the development and maintenance of deployed software; for example, they require to compose existing components into more complex objects, and to guarantee that this composition will work correctly and fulfill its expected role.

The objective of the project is to investigate reliability and security in a computational model where both the platform and applications are dynamic, so that incoming software, built from off-the-shelf components, may be destined to form part of the platform or to execute as a standard application.

The concrete goals of the project include the development of mechanisms that help software developers build reliable software from off-the-shelf components, and of security infrastructures that guarantee end-users that the software they use is safe and secure.

This was a mobility project financed by the STIC-Amsud. It started in 2006 and lasted three years.

Participant Groups

Coordinating Team

Gilles Barthe (General)
Eric Madeleine (FR)
Pedro R. D'Argenio (AR)
Tomás Barros (CL)
Gustavo Betarte (UY)