(How) can mobile agents do secure electronic transactions on untrusted hosts? A survey of the security issues and the current solutions

Abstract

This article investigates if and how mobile agents can execute secure electronic transactions on untrusted hosts. An overview of the security issues of mobile agents is first given. The problem of untrusted (i.e., potentially malicious) hosts is one of these issues, and appears to be the most difficult to solve. The current approaches to counter this problem are evaluated, and their relevance for secure electronic transactions is discussed. In particular, a state-of-the-art survey of mobile agent-based secure electronic transactions is presented.