SDM provides a realistic security framework for Java-based distributed object systems. It isolates the complexities of the underlying protocols necessary to provide a very wide range of security policies and trust levels. It presents application writers and system administrators with a flexible, uniform API. SDM appears to be the most conservative extension of the Java 1.2 security architecture that simultaneously supports both delegation- and role-based security, along with revocation mechanisms that are often needed in practice.
The design of SDM has also benefited from other work in security architectures, but differs from previous systems in significant ways: