A Silicon Valley startup last week released a Java security system that keeps Internet-based Java applets out while letting their functionality in.

Digitivity Inc.'s Cage Server captures incoming Java applets before they pass through a firewall and detains Java code in the server, where rules and restrictions are run against the applet.

Cage protects intranets from malicious applets as well as buggy applets that could cause user machines to crash.

But unlike other Java applet blocker applications, Cage uses an applet proxy technology that mimics the applet on a user's desktop. Cage's re-creation of the Java applet allows the same interactivity to occur as if the applet were running locally, said officials of the Los Altos, Calif., company.

The technology that enables the proxy function, called BrowserBridge, acts as a data transfer agent that creates a virtual version of the applet to work with a Web page and run on a user's desktop.

Cage lets only externally created Java applets run in this protected space; it does not limit the use of internally developed applets.

Cage is the first in a series of Java security servers due from Digitivity. For the fourth quarter, the company is planning to release Policy Cage, which will use digital signatures as a way of enabling individual applet restrictions or rules. Policy Cage will also use the IP address and other access control parameters.

In the first quarter of next year, Digitivity plans to release Enterprise Cage, which will enable Java applet transaction and messaging support.

Cage is priced at $7,500; pricing for Policy Cage and Enterprise has not been released.

Digitivity can be reached at (415) 947-1900.

Source: PC Week