[Python-Dev] Security capabilities in Python

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Eyal Lotem wrote:
> I would like to experiment with security based on Python references as
> security capabilities.
> 
> Unfortunatly, there are several problems that make Python references
> invalid as capabilities:
> 
> * There is no way to create secure proxies because there are no
> private attributes.
> * Lots of Python objects are reachable unnecessarily breaking the
> principle of least privelege (i.e: object.__subclasses__() etc.)
> 
> I was wondering if any such effort has already begun or if there are
> other considerations making Python unusable as a capability platform?

You might want to have a look at mxProxy objects. These
were created to provide secure wrappers around Python
objects with a well-defined access mechanism, e.g.
by defining a list of methods/attributes which can
be accessed from the outside or by creating a method
which then decides whether access is granted or not:

    http://www.egenix.com/files/python/mxProxy.html

Note that the new-style classes may have introduced some
security leaks. If you find any, please let me know.

PS: A nice side-effect of the these proxy objects is that
you can create weak-reference to all Python objects (not just
those that support the protocol).

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
eGenix.com

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