Computer relational database method and system having role based access control

• US 10,430,430 B2
• Filed: 03/11/2011
• Issued: 10/01/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Muller, Leslie, Wasser, Michael Morris, Maestro, Alberto Arias
• Primary Examiner(s): Trujillo, James
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mina, Fatima P
• Application Number:
  US13/046,209
• Publication Number:
  US 20110302180A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,126 Days
• Field of Search: 707713, 707716, 707717, 707781, 707999003
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/212 with details for data modelling support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24549 Run-time optimisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24565 Triggers; Constraints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2471 Distributed queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/283 Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries

Abstract

A computer method, system and apparatus control access to secured data in a plurality of databases. A repository is coupled to the databases and has a security runtime subsystem. The repository intercepts a user query of a subject database in the plurality. The security runtime subsystem determines from the intercepted query a user and corresponding user role. Based on user role, the security runtime subsystem automatically modifies the user query to filter out secure data for which the identified user is unauthorized to access but are part of the user query.

Claims

1. A method of controlling access to secured data, comprising:

operatively coupling a repository to one or more databases storing secure data;

employing the repository, intercepting a user query of one database of the one or more databases;

automatically determining from the user query, a user who generated the user query and a user role assigned to the user;

parsing the user query to identify which secure data is to be accessed by the user query;

looking up security information of the secure data to be accessed to determine access rules for the secure data to be accessed, wherein the security information is not stored within the one database;

dynamically adjusting the security information at runtime;

based on the user role and the security information, automatically building an expression tree to filter out secure data for which the user does not have access rights, wherein the expression tree comprises a plurality of expressions based on a scope of the secure data to be accessed and a task associated with the user role;

modifying the user query by appending the expression tree to the user query to filter out secure data for which the user does not have access rights; and

applying the modified query to the one database.

2. A method of claim 1 further comprising parsing the user query and identifying objects in the one database that are to be accessed as part of the user query.

3. A method of claim 2 wherein the user query includes an indication of the user;

and

the repository is further configured to look up security information of the identified objects in a metamodel of the one database, and resolve any group memberships.

4. A method of claim 2 further comprising storing in a metamodel of the one database, security information that qualifies which data objects are accessible by certain user roles, and

the repository being further configured to look up security information of the identified objects in the metamodel and determine which identified objects to filter out of the user query.

5. A method of claim 4 further comprising:

using the repository to secure the security information.

6. A method of claim 1 wherein the automatically determining and modifying include decoupling objects and row level security from the database.

7. A method of claim 1 further comprising processing the modified query on the one database and returning results of the modified query to the user.

8. A method of claim 1 wherein the one database is a relational database.

9. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the one or more databases are unrelated to each other and non-centrally managed.

12. A method of claim 8 wherein the modifying the user query includes inserting an SQL Where clause to filter out certain secure data/objects in the database that are part of the user query.

10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program embodied therein that when executed causes a computing system to perform a method of controlling access to secured data, wherein the method comprises:

operatively coupling a repository to a plurality of databases storing secure data;

employing the repository to intercept a user query of one database of the plurality of databases;

automatically determining from the user query, a user who generated the user query and a user role assigned to the user;

parsing the user query to identify which secure data is to be accessed by the user query and to identify objects in the one database that are to be accessed as part of the user query;

looking up security information of the secure data to be accessed to determine access rules for the secure data to be accessed, wherein the security information is stored in a metamodel decoupled from the one database, the security information qualifying which objects of the one database are accessible by certain user roles,

the repository being further configured to look up security information of the identified objects in the metamodel and determine which identified objects to filter out of the user query;

using the repository to secure the security information;

dynamically adjusting the security information at runtime;

based on the user role and the security information, automatically building an expression tree to filter out secure data for which the user does not have access rights, wherein the expression tree comprises a plurality of expressions based on a scope of the secure data to be accessed and a task associated with the user role;

modifying the user query by appending the expression tree to the user query to filter out secure data for which the user does not have access rights; and

applying the modified query to the one database.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium as claimed in claim 10, wherein the employing of the repository to intercept the user query of the one database of the plurality of databases further comprises employing the database to intercept the user query of the one database that is a relational database.