Secure Network Programming: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 23:23, 10 May 2023

Revision as of 11:37, 25 July 2023

Line 2:

'''Secure Network Programming''' (SNP) is a prototype of the first [[Secure Sockets Layer]], designed and built by the Networking Research Laboratory at [[the University of Texas at Austin]], led by [[Simon S. Lam]]. This work was published in the 1994 USENIX Summer Technical Conference.<ref name="SNP-USENIX">{{cite journal |last1=Woo |first1=Thomas |last2=Bindignavle |first2=Raghuram |last3=Su |first3=Shaowen |last4=Lam |first4=Simon |title=SNP: An Interface for Secure Network Programming |journal=Proceedings USENIX Summer Technical Conference |date=June 1994 |url=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/lam/Vita/Cpapers/WBSL94.pdf |accessdate=21 July 2019}}</ref> For this project, the authors won the 2004 [[ACM Software System Award]].

This work began in 1991 as a theoretical investigation by the Networking Research Laboratory on the formal meaning of a protocol layer satisfying an upper interface specification as a service provider and a lower interface specification as a service consumer.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lam |first1=Simon |last2=Shankar |first2=Udaya |title=A Theory of Interfaces and Modules I — Composition Theorem |journal=IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering |date=January 1994 |volume=20 |pages=55–71 |doi=10.1109/32.263755 |url=https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=631099 |accessdate=21 July 2019}}</ref> A case study of adding a security layer between the application and [[network layer]]s was presented.<ref>{{cite journalbook |last1=Lam |first1=Simon |last2=Shankar |first2=Udaya|last3=Woo |first3=Thomas |title=Proceedings. Applying1991 aIEEE TheoryComputer ofSociety ModulesSymposium andon InterfacesResearch toin Security Verificationand Privacy |journalchapter=Applying Proceedingsa IEEEtheory Symposiumof onmodules Researchand ininterfaces Securityto and Privacy,security Oaklandverification |date=May 1991 |chapter-url=https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/lam/Vita/IEEE/LSW91.pdf | pages=136–154|doi=10.1109/RISP.1991.130782 |isbn=0-8186-2168-0 |s2cid=18581606 | access-date=5 January 2021}}</ref>

The Networking Research Laboratory received a grant from the National Security Agency in June 1991 to investigate how to apply their theory of modules and interfaces to security verification.<ref>Simon S. Lam (PI/PD), "Applying a Theory of Modules and Interfaces to Security Verification", NSA INFOSEC University Research Program grant no. MDA 904-91-C-7046, 6/28/91 to 6/27/93.</ref> At that time, there were three well-known authentication systems built (MIT's [[Kerberos (protocol)|Kerberos]]) or being developed (DEC's SPX and IBM's KryptoKnight). All of these systems suffered from a common drawback; namely, they did not export a clean and easy-to-use interface that could be readily used by Internet applications. For example, it would take a tremendous amount of effort to "kerberize" an existing distributed application.