A framework for building composable replaceable security services

This paper describes a distributed framework developed for the Composable Replaceable Security Services (CRSS) project, The purpose of the framework is to support fault-tolerant and composable security services. This paper shows how the framework insulates a client application from a collection of pluggable service providers, allowing applications to be unaware of the selection and the replacement of service providers. The service providers also use the framework services, allowing complex service providers to be composed out of simpler services. When a service provider faults, the framework transparently replaces the faulting service provider with a healthy one. Finally, the framework supports variability and multiplicity by permitting several different compositions of services that can be used to perform security requirements of applications.