Method and agent for preventing a hostile use of computer resources by an
application running on a workstation. A list of services that are not
allowed for access by unspecified applications is determined, and when
such unspecified application runs on the workstation, direct access to
the application is prevented from any resource. Any direct or indirect
request for access to specific services is analyzed, to determine whether
such request is allowable according to the list. The workstation
processes the request if it is allowable. The unspecified application is
prevented from accessing the requested resource if the request is not
allowable. The resource may be any local or remote resource, such as,
memory allocation, files, directories, operations with files and
directories, such as copy, delete or compress, or any other operation
leading to a permanent change in the workstation or its periphery. A
look-up table which includes a list of services that are not allowed for
access by unspecified applications, is used to determine whether requests
made directly or indirectly by the unspecified application are allowable.
The agent comprises a pre-set list of applications including a list of
resources that each application may utilize.