Raymond K. Ng

Since 2001 when Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS) was formally included in the Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.3 platform specification, the J2EE community has been grappling with the issue of JAAS/J2EE integration. On the surface, JAAS seems to be an excellent complement to J2EE: JAAS defines a pluggable Application Programming Interface (API) for authentication modules and a fine-grained Subject-based authorization model, which are both lacking in the existing J2EE security model. Since JAAS is officially part of the J2EE platform specification, it's not unreasonable to expect that you can now leverage the JAAS framework to build portable enterprise applications that have advanced authentication and authorization requirements. Unfortunately, any Java architects or developers who go down this path for their applications will soon be c... (more)

Whatever Happened to JAAS?

Introduced in 1995, Java has firmly established itself as a mature mainstream programming language for enterprises. The Java platform security model has evolved over the years to meet new requirements, and today enterprise Java developers have a large number of APIs and services to choose from to fulfill their security needs. Originally touted as a secure runtime environment for downloadable executables (applets), Java platform security received a lot of attention early on and the rather inflexible security model was quickly identified as a weakness in the system. With the Java ... (more)