The Research Of Data Protection For Mobile Agent

With the development of network technology, distributed computing is showing advantage gradually, and mobile Agent is becoming a research hotspot. Mobile Agent is a kind of computer programming which can migrate freely and calculate independently among computers in isomerous networks, and can execute designated tasks on behalf of users. Moreover, it is characterized by independency, mobility, coordination, etc.The present study introduced the technology of mobile Agent and reviewed its security problem and the corresponding security strategy first. The basic knowledge of cryptography is introduced. On the basis of systematic analysis of current security strategy for data protection, two measures are proposed in order to solve the mobile data protection problem.Then, Interrelated Data Hash Chain Encryption (IDHCE) mechanism is proposed in this thesis. The core idea of the mechanism is to establish an interrelated encryption relationship among the data collected by mobile Agent, so as to ensure confidentiality and integrality of data. In order to promote the efficiency of data encryption chain, the object of multilayer encryption is substituted by data hash, which significantly reduces the workload of encryption operation. The results of performance analysis and security analysis showed that execute time of this mechanism is greatly reduced, and many kinds of common attacks can be resisted. Compared with the existing security mechanism, on the premise of the same or even better security, the IDHCE mechanism has advantages in practicality and adaptability.Next, we proposed a Chain IDHCE mechanism, which still uses the idea that all data is interrelated, but breaks multilayer encryption to separate data supplied by host. Also, it can preserve effective data as possible when facing attack and transmission errors, and not only can detect attacks, but distinguish in general the type of attacks, and makes calculation in source host steady. At the same time, the Chain IDHCE mechanism ensures the security of IDHCE without reducing the efficiency. Its general performance is therefore better than of IDHCE mechanism.Finally, a systematic in-depth study on mobile Agent platform—IBM Aglet is undertaken. Based on the given interface, a simple prototype of information collection system was obtained and the feasibility of data protection by IDHCE mechanism is validated.