Patent ID: 7516477

Claim:
In a computing environment, a method for a computer system and a user of the computer system to ensure trustworthiness of computer-executable code that is available for download on an interconnected network, thereby avoiding installation and execution of computer-executable code that may be dangerous to the computer system, the method comprising: receiving from an entity, which is connected to the computing system through the interconnected network and which is making a computer-executable code application available, security-related information comprising a descriptive data structure which comprises a specific set of permissions that the application requests from the computing system in order to operate and category-related information comprising a category that the application corresponds to which is indicative of the application's functionality and capability; accessing established security-related data comprising an established permission set for the category that the application corresponds to, the established permission set reflecting the permissions that are grantable to applications within the category; comparing the specific set of permissions that the application requests with the established permission set in order to determine if the specific set of permissions that the application requests matches or is a subset of the established permission set; if the specific set of permissions that the application requests matches or is a subset of the established permission set, considering the application as trustworthy, such that the application is considered as being trustworthy when the application does not request any permission or privilege in the specific set of permissions that the application requests that is not contained in the established permission set corresponding to the category of the application; and if the specific set of permissions that the application requests does not match or is not a subset of the established permission set, considering the application as not trustworthy.