A reference monitor sets standards for a computer’s access control policy, protecting it from external threats. It must be vigilant, incorruptible, and verifiable, and the operating system must ensure it is always active and cannot be tampered with. The policy determines who has authority to access the system and the rights of individual users.
A reference monitor is a specific set of requirements governing the reference validation mechanism in a computer’s operating system code. It acts to provide a theoretical ideal that protects your computer from potential hackers who might try to interfere with your access control policy. If an operating system’s code doesn’t meet the standards set by its reference monitor, the system will be vulnerable to external threats from malicious users trying to violate its security policies.
A computer’s access control policy determines not only who has the authority to access the system, but also the rights of individual users to change elements of the computer’s system. It establishes an operational hierarchy between authorized computer administrators – who can add and remove programs, make significant changes to the operating system, and so on – and restricted regular computer users, who are likely to have less freedom to change systems. The reference validation mechanism sets these policies; in fact, it’s like a security officer in a club or company. It does the dirty work of ensuring that everyone who enters the system has the right to be in it, as well as keeping everyone in their place.
If the referenced validation mechanism is a security officer, the referenced monitor is the executive who determines the most effective security paradigm. The reference monitor has three general goals for the reference validation mechanism. These can generally be summarized as vigilance, incorruptibility and verifiability.
Warning means that operating system programmers must ensure that the reference validation mechanism is always active. In other words, it has to stay “on the job” 24 hours a day to remain effective. If the operating system is running, the reference validation mechanism must be up and running.
Incorruptibility means that the reference checking mechanism must remain insensitive to tampering. This means that he must ignore any outside attempts to influence his behavior. The goal is to prevent hackers from compromising system security.
Finally, testability means that it must be a process small enough that the operating system monitors it at all times. According to ideal reference monitor policies, the operating system should be able to freely test the reference validation mechanism, seeing if it is doing its job correctly. These tests must be verifiable by the operating system, allowing it to run the tests repeatedly and obtain consistent and accurate results.
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