Row level security integration of analytical data store with cloud architecture

• US 10,671,751 B2
• Filed: 02/22/2017
• Issued: 06/02/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Schneider, Donovan A., Silver, Daniel C., Im, Fred, Chakravarthy, Vijayasarathy
• Primary Examiner(s): Feild, Lynn D
• Assistant Examiner(s): McCoy, Richard A
• Application Number:
  US15/439,637
• Publication Number:
  US 20170161515A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,196 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1865 Transactional file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/254 Extract, transform and load [ETL] procedures, e.g. ETL data flows in data warehouses
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles

Abstract

A predicate-based row level security system is used when workers build or split an analytical data store. According to one implementation, predicate-based means that security requirements of source transactional systems can be used as predicates to a rule base that generates one or more security tokens, which are associated with each row as attributes of a dimension. Similarly, when an analytic data store is to be split, build job, user and session attributes can be used to generate complementary security tokens that are compared to security tokens of selected rows. Efficient indexing of a security tokens dimension makes it efficient to qualify row retrieval based on security criteria.

Claims

1. A method of building an analytic sub-structure from a secure read-only analytic data structure, the method comprising:

receiving a request to build the analytic sub-structure from the secure read-only analytic data structure, the secure read-only analytic data structure generated from a data set and including a plurality of secured objects and associated security tokens that govern access to the plurality of secured objects by a plurality of users, wherein the request indicates a query for a subset of the plurality of secured objects, wherein each security token indicates one or more of the plurality of secured objects that one or more of the plurality of users are authorized to access;

generating at least one query security token based on an authentication of the request and an application of security translation rules, the at least one query security token qualifying the request to access the subset of the plurality of secured objects;

transmitting, to a query engine, the at least one query security token and the query for the subset of the plurality of secured objects; and

receiving, from the query engine in response to the transmitting, the analytic sub-structure including the subset of the plurality of secured objects of the secure read-only analytic data structure that satisfy the query and security tokens associated with the subset, each secured object of the subset of the plurality of secured objects associated with at least one security token that matches the at least one query security token, wherein the received analytic sub-structure includes the at least one security token.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing the data set from at least one transactional data management system separate from the secure read-only data structure, wherein data in the data set has security attributes managed by the at least one transactional data management system;

processing the security translation rules that accept the security attributes as predicates and generating the associated security tokens indicating one or more of the plurality of secured objects that one or more of the plurality of users are authorized to access based at least in part on the security attributes; and

storing the security tokens by association with each secured object in the secure read-only analytic data structure generated from the data set.

3. The method of claim 2, further including:

accessing a plurality of heterogeneous transactional data management systems that have divergent security models;

accessing data in the plurality of heterogeneous transactional data management systems and creating objects that merge the accessed data from two or more heterogeneous transactional data management systems of the plurality of heterogeneous transactional data management systems; and

processing the security translation rules that accept the security attributes from the two or more heterogeneous transactional data management systems of the plurality of heterogeneous transactional data management systems as predicates and generating one or more security tokens to associate with each secured object that merges the accessed data.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the security attributes are based on one or more security models used to manage access to the at least one transactional data management system.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more security models include at least one of:

row-based security;

LDAP-based security;

agent-based security;

team-based security;

account-hierarchy-based security;

group-based security; and

sharing-descriptor-based security.

6. The method of claim 2, further including generating a view-all-data initial instance of the secure read-only analytic data structure before the processing of the security translation rules that accept the security attributes as the predicates.

7. The method of claim 1, further including:

accessing a second data set from at least one transactional data management system, wherein data in the second data set lacks a security model;

creating a new read-only analytic data structure that merges the data lacking the security model with the secure read-only analytic data structure based at least in part on accessing the second data set; and

associating the security tokens associated with the secure read-only analytic data structure to the new read-only analytic data structure.

8. The method of claim 1, further including mobilizing the analytic sub-structure from a secure server based platform to a browser based user client platform, the mobilizing of the analytic sub-structure including:

receiving a subset query to receive a subset of data in the analytic sub-structure; and

supplying the subset of data of the analytic sub-structure to the browser based user client platform that satisfies the subset query with a reduced bandwidth and processing time.

9. The method of claim 1, further including:

receiving a second request including a subset query for a subset of data in the secure read-only analytic data structure that satisfies the subset query;

applying additional security translation rules to construct at least one other query security token based on an authentication of the second request, wherein the at least one other query security token constructed from the additional security translation rules qualifies the second request to access the subset of data in the secure read-only analytic data structure; and

supplying the second subset query and the at least one other query security token constructed from the additional security translation rules to a query engine and receiving the subset of data from the secure read-only analytic data structure that satisfies the subset query and that has an associated security token that matches the at least one other query security token.

10. The method of claim 9, further including mobilizing the subset of data from a secure server based platform to a browser based user client platform, the mobilizing of the subset of data including:

receiving the subset query to receive the subset of data; and

supplying the subset of data to the browser based user client platform that satisfies the subset query with a reduced bandwidth and processing time.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the security tokens define accessibility of respective dimensions and measures of each secured object.

24. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting, to a browser based user client platform, the analytic sub-structure including the subset of the plurality of secured objects in response to the received request to build the analytic sub-structure from the secure read-only analytic data structure, wherein the analytic sub-structure transmitted to the browser based user client platform includes the at least one security token indicating one or more of the subset of the plurality of secured objects that one or more of the plurality of users are authorized to access using the browser based user client platform.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium impressed with computer program instructions for building an analytic sub-structure from a secure read-only analytic data structure, the instructions, when executed on a hardware processor implement a method comprising:

receiving a request to build the analytic sub-structure from the secure read-only analytic data structure, the secure read-only analytic data structure generated from a data set and including a plurality of secured objects and associated security tokens that govern access to the plurality of secured objects by a plurality of users, wherein the request indicates a query for a subset of the plurality of secured objects, wherein each security token indicates one or more of the plurality of secured objects that one or more of the plurality of users are authorized to access;

generating at least one query security token based on an authentication of the request and an application of security translation rules, the at least one query security token qualifying the request to access the subset of the plurality of secured objects;

transmitting, to a query engine, the at least one query security token and the query for the subset of the plurality of secured objects; and

receiving, from the query engine in response to the transmitting, the analytic sub-structure including the subset of the plurality of secured objects of the secure read-only analytic data structure that satisfy the query and security tokens associated with the subset, each secured object of the subset of the plurality of secured objects associated with at least one security token that matches the at least one query security token, wherein the received analytic sub-structure includes the at least one security token.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises:

accessing the data set from at least one transactional data management system separate from the secure read-only data structure, wherein data in the data set has security attributes managed by the at least one transactional data management system;

processing the security translation rules that accept the security attributes as predicates and generating the associated security tokens indicating one or more of the plurality of secured objects that one or more of the plurality of users are authorized to access based at least in part on the security attributes; and

storing the security tokens by association with each secured object in the secure read-only analytic data structure generated from the data set.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises:

accessing a plurality of heterogeneous transactional data management systems that have divergent security models;

accessing data in the plurality of heterogeneous transactional data management systems and creating objects that merge the accessed data from two or more heterogeneous transactional data management systems of the plurality of heterogeneous transactional data management systems; and

process the security translation rules that accept the security attributes from the two or more heterogeneous transactional data management systems of the plurality of heterogeneous transactional data management systems as predicates and generating one or more security tokens to associate with each secured object that merges the accessed data.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the security attributes are based on one or more security models used to manage access to the at least one transactional data management system.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more security models include at least one of:

row-based security;

LDAP-based security;

agent-based security;

team-based security;

account-hierarchy-based security;

group-based security; and

sharing-descriptor-based security.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises generating a view-all-data initial instance of the secure read-only analytic data structure before the processing of the security translation rules that accept the security attributes as the predicates.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises:

accessing a second data set from at least one transactional data management system, wherein data in the second data set lacks a security model;

creating a new read-only analytic data structure that merges the data lacking the security model with the secure read-only analytic data structure based at least in part on accessing the second data set; and

associating the security tokens associated with the secure read-only analytic data structure to the new read-only analytic data structure.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises mobilizing the analytic sub-structure from a secure server based platform to a browser based user client platform, the mobilizing of the analytic sub-structure including:

receiving a subset query to receive a subset of data in the analytic sub-structure; and

supplying the subset of data of the analytic sub-structure to the browser based user client platform that satisfies the subset query with a reduced bandwidth and processing time.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a second request including a subset query for a subset of data in the secure read-only analytic data structure that satisfies the subset query;

applying additional security translation rules to construct at least one other query security token based on an authentication of the second request, wherein the at least one other query security token constructed from the additional security translation rules qualifies the second request to access the subset of data in the secure read-only analytic data structure; and

supplying the second subset query and the at least one other query security token constructed from the additional security translation rules to a query engine and receiving the subset of data from the secure read-only analytic data structure that satisfies the subset query and that has an associated security token that matches the at least one other query security token.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the method further comprises mobilizing the subset of data from a secure server based platform to a browser based user client platform, the mobilizing of the subset of data including:

receiving the subset query to receive the subset of data; and

supplying the subset of data to the browser based user client platform that satisfies the subset query with a reduced bandwidth and processing time.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the security tokens define accessibility of respective dimensions and measures of each secured object.

23. An apparatus for building an analytic sub-structure from a secure read-only analytic data structure, the apparatus comprising:

a memory storing computer instructions; and

a processor configured to execute the stored computer instructions to;

receive a request to build the analytic sub-structure from the secure read-only analytic data structure, the secure read-only analytic data structure generated from a data set and including a plurality of secured objects and associated security tokens that govern access to the plurality of secured objects by a plurality of users, wherein the request indicates a query for a subset of the plurality of secured objects, wherein each security token indicates one or more of the plurality of secured objects that one or more of the plurality of users are authorized to access;

generate at least one query security token based on an authentication of the request and an application of security translation rules, the at least one query security token qualifying the request to access the subset of the plurality of secured objects;

transmit, to a query engine, the at least one query security token and the query for the subset of the plurality of secured objects; and

receive, from the query engine in response to the transmitting, the analytic sub-structure including the subset of the plurality of secured objects of the secure read-only analytic data structure that satisfy the query and security tokens associated with the subset, each secured object of the subset of the plurality of secured objects associated with at least one security token that matches the at least one query security token, wherein the received analytic sub-structure includes the at least one security token.