OPTIMIZING INTERACTIONS BETWEEN CO-LOCATED PROCESSES

• US 20120131641A1
• Filed: 05/31/2011
• Published: 05/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Kavantzas, Nickolas, Gupta, Pratibha
• Granted Patent: US 8,726,349 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/629 to features or functions of an application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/547 Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles

Abstract

In one set of embodiments, methods, systems, and apparatus are provided to enable secure local invocation of a web service in response to receiving a request from a first composite application to invoke a web service operation of a second composite application, where the first application is associated with a reference policy, and the second application is associated with a service policy, then determining, based upon the service policy and the reference policy, whether local invocation is secure, and invoking the operation using the local invocation in response to determining that the local invocation is secure. Attributes associated with the reference and service policies can indicate whether those policies can be used in a local invocation, or if user authentication is needed before performing the invocation with those policies. The local invocation may comprise a procedure call in an application server from the first application to the second application.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a computer system, a request from a first composite application to invoke a web service operation of a second composite application,

wherein the first application is associated with a reference policy, and the second application is associated with a service policy;

determining, by the computer system, based upon the service policy and the reference policy, whether local invocation of the web service operation is secure; and

invoking the web service operation using the local invocation in response to determining that local invocation is secure.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein local invocation is secure if a first attribute associated with the reference policy and a second attribute associated with the service policy indicate that the reference and service policies can be used in a local invocation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein if the first attribute indicates that user authentication is needed for local invocation, and the second attribute indicates that the service policy can be used in a local invocation, then local invocation is secure if a user requesting the local invocation has been authenticated.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein local invocation is secure if the reference and service policies form a valid configuration for local invocation.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the policies represent a valid configuration if there is a service policy corresponding to each reference policy, wherein the service policy is of the same category as the reference policy, and

if there is a service policy of the security category, then there is a corresponding reference policy of the security category.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the local invocation comprises a procedure call within a process.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the local invocation comprises a procedure call from instructions that implement the first composite application to instructions that implement the second composite application.

8. A system comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive a request from a first composite application to invoke a web service operation of a second composite application,

wherein the first application is associated with a reference policy, and the second application is associated with a service policy;

determine, based upon the service policy and the reference policy, whether local invocation of the web service operation is secure; and

invoke the web service operation using the local invocation in response to determining that local invocation is secure.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein local invocation is secure if a first attribute associated with the reference policy and a second attribute associated with the service policy indicate that the reference and service policies can be used in a local invocation.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein if the first attribute indicates that user authentication is needed for local invocation, and the second attribute indicates that the service policy can be used in a local invocation, then local invocation is secure if a user requesting the local invocation has been authenticated.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein local invocation is secure if the reference and service policies form a valid configuration for local invocation.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the policies represent a valid configuration if there is a service policy corresponding to each reference policy, wherein the service policy is of the same category as the reference policy, and

if there is a service policy of the security category, then there is a corresponding reference policy of the security category.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the local invocation comprises a procedure call within a process.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the local invocation comprises a procedure call from instructions that implement the first composite application to instructions that implement the second composite application.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable medium for a computer system, the non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon a series of instructions executable by a processor, the series of instructions comprising:

instructions that cause the processor to receive a request from a first composite application to invoke a web service operation of a second composite application,

wherein the first application is associated with a reference policy, and the second application is associated with a service policy;

instructions that cause the processor to determine, based upon the service policy and the reference policy, whether local invocation of the web service operation is secure; and

instructions that cause the processor to invoke the web service operation using the local invocation in response to determining that local invocation is secure.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein local invocation is secure if a first attribute associated with the reference policy and a second attribute associated with the service policy indicate that the reference and service policies can be used in a local invocation.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein if the first attribute indicates that user authentication is needed for local invocation, and the second attribute indicates that the service policy can be used in a local invocation, then local invocation is secure if a user requesting the local invocation has been authenticated.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein local invocation is secure if the reference and service policies form a valid configuration for local invocation.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the policies represent a valid configuration if there is a service policy corresponding to each reference policy, wherein the service policy is of the same category as the reference policy, and

if there is a service policy of the security category, then there is a corresponding reference policy of the security category.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the local invocation comprises a procedure call within a process.

21. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the local invocation comprises a procedure call from instructions that implement the first composite application to instructions that implement the second composite application.