USING WINDOWS AUTHENTICATION IN A WORKGROUP TO MANAGE APPLICATION USERS
First Claim
1. A method for authenticating a user of an application executing at a front-end computer, the method comprising:
- under control of a logon computer,establishing an account for the user with an operating system executing on the logon computer, the account specifying credentials of the user that are available to the user, the credentials for authenticating access by the user to the account of the operating system; and
granting the user access rights to one or more application resources wherein the operating system manages access to the resource; and
under control of the front-end computer,receiving credentials from the user;
sending a request to access the application resource managed by the logon computer using the received credentialsreceiving an indication of whether the resource was successfully accessed using the received credentials; and
when the indication indicates that the resource was accessed successfully, indicating that the user is authenticated and authorized to access the resource.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An system for authenticating users of an application program executing at a front-end computer using the security features built into the operating system of a logon computer is provided. Initially, an administrator establishes user accounts for each user with an operating system executing at the logon computer with access to application resources. When the application program starts executing at the front-end computer, the application program prompts the user for credentials. The application program attempts to access resources managed by the logon computer using the received credentials. When access to a resource is successful, the application program knows that the logon computer has authenticated the user and the user is authorized to access the resource. In this manner, the application program can take advantage of the security features built into the operating system executing at the logon computer to authenticate users of the application program and authorize access to application resources.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for authenticating a user of an application executing at a front-end computer, the method comprising:
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under control of a logon computer, establishing an account for the user with an operating system executing on the logon computer, the account specifying credentials of the user that are available to the user, the credentials for authenticating access by the user to the account of the operating system; and granting the user access rights to one or more application resources wherein the operating system manages access to the resource; and under control of the front-end computer, receiving credentials from the user; sending a request to access the application resource managed by the logon computer using the received credentials receiving an indication of whether the resource was successfully accessed using the received credentials; and when the indication indicates that the resource was accessed successfully, indicating that the user is authenticated and authorized to access the resource. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A computer-readable storage medium containing instructions for authenticating a user of an application executing at a front-end computer by a method, the method comprising:
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prompting the user to enter credentials at the front-end computer, the credentials for accessing a user account established with an operating system executing at a logon computer, the user account having rights to access a database at the logon computer, and wherein the operating system executing at the logon computer manages access to the database; receiving credentials from the user; sending a request for a token, the request including the received credentials; receiving a token without an indication of whether the token is valid, the token generated by the operating system executing at the logon computer using the received credentials; storing the token at the front-end computer; sending a request to open a connection to the database using the token; receiving an indication of whether a connection to the database was opened successfully using the token, the indication generated by the operating system executing at the logon computer; and when the indication indicates that a connection to the database was opened successfully, indicating that the user is authenticated for the purpose of accessing the database. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12)
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13. A method in a logon computer for authenticating a user of an application executing at a front-end computer, the logon computer executing an operating system that manages access to a resource, the method comprising:
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establishing a user account for the user with the operating system, the user account specifying credentials for authenticating access to the user account with rights to access a resource managed by the operating system; receiving a request to authenticate the user, the request including credentials of the user; attempting to access the resource using the credentials; and sending an indication of whether the resource was successfully accessed using the received credentials, so that the application can authenticate the user based on whether the operating system indicates that access to the resource using the received credentials was successful. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification