4.2.1 How does CORBA security affect application writers?

Linda Gricius (March, 1998):

In a secure CORBA system, the same client calls the same target object that it would call in an unsecured system. The invocation request is intercepted by the ORB Security service at both client and target, and the level of protection required by the current policy settings is applied. Security may be enforced at the client side, the target side, or both. This includes support for any or all of the following:

• Establishing secure associations between the client and target;
• Integrity and/or confidentiality protection for individual requests and replies sent between the client and target;
• Access control checks to determine if the principal is allowed to perform this operation on the target object;
• Auditing of security-relevant events.

Since the invocation is intercepted in the ORB, it is transparent to the application. However, applications that want to enforce their own security controls can call on the Security services directly.

It's important to note that object implementations do not need to be changed to fit into and be protected by a secure ORB. A distributed application may be made up of many small objects, and it is unusual for all the application developers to be sufficiently security knowledgeable to make the right calls on the security facilities.