Java Jive: "I Said a Sip, Not the Whole Cup!"
by Scott Clark
Imagine how a programmer feels when they see their hard work displayed on someone else's Web page, without permission or credit.
Creating a Java applet may take a skilled programmer days,
weeks, even months. After the applet has been deployed on the
Web, imagine how a programmer feels when they see their hard
work displayed on someone else's Web page, without permission
or credit.
The theft of applets on the Web is a serious issue to many people.
The methods are many: applets can be snagged from a Web
browser's cache, or they can be simply linked to the thief's site,
using the thief's own parameters. Some clever hackers simply
reverse engineer the class file, and rebuild the applet. There's
even a new utility program out that reverse engineers .class files
into a readable source code.
If you have an applet on the Web, and don't believe anyone else is
using it, just go to AltaVista and type in "applet:myapplet.class,"
(substituting your applet's class name for myapplet.class, of
course). More likely than not, you'll see that your applet is being
used on sites of which you had no knowledge. For a lot of folks,
that's just a great compliment. For professional programmers,
however, it's a crime. In this article, Web Developer® will show
you one way which you can use to prevent applet theft from
happening, and tell you the facts about Java applet theft.
One thing must always be kept in mind when it comes to security
on the Internet-hackers enjoy breaking it! Most of the time, the
actual information or software that hackers work so hard to get to
isn't really the motivation. It's the mere act of breaking your
security that motivates a lot of hackers.
Although corporate hackers are out there, when you are talking
about Web pages and Java applets, more often than not, the
hackers are other Web developers, and the majority of them have
Web pages, which is where you'll find your "stolen" applet.
NEXT
Reprinted from Web Developer® magazine, Vol. 3 No.2 Mar/Apr 1997 (c) 1997 internet.com Corporation. All rights reserved.
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