X-Switch: A Secure, Multi-User, Language-Independent Web Application Server

Nyirenda, Mayumbo and Hussein Suleman (2008) X-Switch: A Secure, Multi-User, Language-Independent Web Application Server. In Proceedings CARI 2008, Rabat, Morrocco.

Abstract

The need for user interactivity has led to the creation of many technologies for Web applications. These Web applications are usually installed on and accessed through a Web application server. Security is however a problem in such environments and most of the servers and Web applications are thus run as the restricted user ‘nobody’.
Performance also is an issue due to process re-initialisation. Many technologies resolve some security and performance shortcomings in limited contexts. This paper presents the X-Switch system: a secure language independent Web application server that is a generalisation of existing technologies.
Experimental results show that the X-Switch system can perform comparably to other Web application servers and that a general solution is possible.