Chapter 5: Policies and Code Groups in Detail

Overview

• Using the Code Access Security Policy Tool

• Working with Code Groups

• Creating Custom Permissions

• Using Policy Objects

Policies are the mechanism that the Common Language Runtime (CLR) uses to examine evidence presented by an object and create a permission that the object uses to access the requested resource. Code groups are the mechanism that grants code a level of trust based on a number of criteria, such as location. All_Code must have membership in at least one code group to execute. Chapter 4 started the discussion of policies and code groups. However, that discussion only covered the basics.

This chapter presents detailed information about both policies and code groups. You’ll discover additional methods for creating, editing, and deleting policies and code groups from any system. In addition, the chapter covers more techniques for working with code groups and policies in code—including programmatic techniques for managing these elements. Finally, you’ll learn how to create a default security policy for your system (an individual workstation or server). This is an important step because the .NET Framework only installs a default policy that may not meet your specific needs.