Investigation of different methodologies for exposing a secure scripting environment in a Microsoft .Net based web application

Master degree thesis opportunity at Spotfire Sweden
Effective immediately Spotfire AB in Göteborg has the opportunity to offer two skilled students an interesting and challenging master degree thesis opportunity (20p).

Spotfire is interested in investigating different possibilities for enabling end users to control the application using ad-hoc scripting, and still offer a reasonable level of security.

Goal
The thesis research will involve an investigation of different methods for implementation of an extension mechanism that allows end users to write scripts that can be called upon to automate common tasks in the analysis environment. It will also include an investigation of the security consideration of this addition and how organizations with different security concerns can configure the scripting capabilities to fit their needs.

Expected content of the research
We expect that the following will be part of the work involved in the research:
• Investigation of existing toolkits that enable scripting, i.e. IronPhyton and Windows PowerShell
• Investigation of the cost and complexity of implementing a special purpose script recorder and player, i.e. similar to macro recording in Microsoft Excel.
• Compare security and functionality aspects of different methodologies for implementation of a scripting environment
• Implement a prototype of a scripting environment and evaluate what different choices can be made to offer customers with different levels of security concerns different levels of functionality
Expected student background
We anticipate that the work involved in the research will require a strong background in Computer Science and security.

The work involved will require good knowledge in:
• Computer security
• Software architecture
• Programming (C#)

Work location
The work will be performed at Spotfires offices in Göteborg, Sweden
Contact information
Inquiries and applications for this thesis project can be sent to [email protected]. More information about the company can be found at http://www.spotfire.com .