Flattening permission trees in a virtualization environment

• US 9,178,886 B2
• Filed: 08/29/2012
• Issued: 11/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat Israel Ltd. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat Israel Ltd. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Mureinik, Allon
• Primary Examiner(s): Nalven, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): RUPRECHT, CHRISTOPHER S
• Application Number:
  US13/597,695
• Publication Number:
  US 20140068718A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,161 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2246 Trees, e.g. B+trees
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2445 Data retrieval commands; View definitions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24539 using cached or materialised query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45587 Isolation or security of virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/00 Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/121 Restricting unauthorised execution of programs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/53 by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/604 Tools and structures for managing or administering access control systems
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/629 to features or functions of an application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2145 Inheriting rights or properties, e.g., propagation of permissions or restrictions within a hierarchy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/104 Grouping of entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/105 : Multiple levels of security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 : Access security

Abstract

A virtualization manager receives a permission request indicating a user and an entity in a virtual machine system. The virtualization manager flattens a permissions database to generate a flattened database view. Using the flattened database view, the virtualization manager determines whether the user has permission to access the entity in the virtual machine system and returns an indication of whether the user has permission to access the entity in the virtual machine system.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a permission request, the request indicating a user and an entity in a virtual machine system;

flattening, by a processing device, a permissions database associated with the virtual machine system to generate a flattened database view, wherein the permissions database to store descriptive labels of entities in the virtual machine system, and wherein the flattened database view defines permissions for the user to access the entities in the virtual machine system in view of the descriptive labels, wherein flattening the permissions database comprises;

identifying a first set of entities in the virtual machine system for which the user has explicit permissions defined in the permissions database,

identifying a second set of entities in the virtual machine system for which a role to which the user is assigned has explicit permissions defined in the permissions database;

identifying a third set of entities in the virtual machine system that inherit the explicit permissions of entities in the first and second sets of entities, wherein entities in the third set of entities are assigned child labels in a labeling hierarchy of entities in the virtual machine system, and

creating a separate entry in the flattened database view for each unique combination of the user and one of the entities in the first, second and third sets of entities in the virtual machine system, wherein the flattened database view comprises a stored query accessible as a virtual table in the permissions database computed from data stored in the permissions database;

determining, using the flattened database view, whether the user has permission to access the entity in the virtual machine system, wherein determining whether the user has permission to access the entity in the virtual machine system comprises issuing a single query to the flattened database view for an entry comprising the user and the entity; and

returning an indication of whether the user has permission to access the entity in the virtual machine system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the permission request is received from a client device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein flattening the permissions database comprises:

identifying a first entity in the virtual machine system for which the user has explicit permissions defined in the permissions database; and

identifying a second entity in the virtual machine system that is a child of the first entity using the labeling hierarchy of entities in the virtual machine system.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein flattening the permissions database further comprises:

identifying the role to which the user is assigned;

identifying a third entity in the virtual machine system for which the role has permissions defined in the permissions database; and

identifying a fourth entity in the virtual machine system that is a child of the third entity using the labeling hierarchy of entities in the virtual machine system.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein flattening the permissions database further comprises:

creating a separate entry in the flattened database view for each unique combination of the user and one of the first, second, third and fourth entities.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication of whether the user has permission to access the entity is affirmative if the entry in the flattened database view comprising the user and the entity is located.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication of whether the user has permission to access the entity is negative if the entry in the flattened database view comprising the user and the entity is not located.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the entity in the virtual machine system comprises at least one of a virtual machine, a virtual disk, a host server, or a virtual data center.

15. The system of claim 5, wherein the entity in the virtual machine system comprises at least one of a virtual machine, a virtual disk, a host server, or a virtual data center.

9. A system comprising:

a processing device;

a memory coupled to the processing device; and

a virtualization manager, executable by the processing device from the memory, to;

receive a permission request from a client, the request indicating a user and an entity in a virtual machine system;

flatten a permissions database associated with the virtual machine system to generate a flattened database view, wherein the permissions database to store descriptive labels of entities in the virtual machine system, wherein the flattened database view defines permissions for the user to access the entities in the virtual machine system in view of the descriptive labels, wherein to generate the flattened database view, the virtualization manager is executable to;

identify a first set of entities in the virtual machine system for which the user has explicit permissions defined in the permissions database,

identify a second set of entities in the virtual machine system for which a role to which the user is assigned has explicit permissions defined in the permissions database,

identify a third set of entities in the virtual machine system that inherit the explicit permissions of entities in the first and second sets of entities, wherein entities in the third set of entities are assigned child labels in a labeling hierarchy of entities in the virtual machine system, and

create a separate entry in the flattened database view for each unique combination of the user and one of the entities in the first, second and third sets of entities in the virtual machine system, wherein the flattened database view comprises a stored query accessible as a virtual table in the permissions database computed from data stored in the permissions database;

determine whether the user has permission to access the entity in the virtual machine system using the flattened database view, wherein to determine whether the user has permission to access the entity in the virtual machine system, the virtualization manager is executable to issue a single query to the flattened database view for an entry comprising the user and the entity; and

return an indication of whether the user has permission to access the entity in the virtual machine system.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein to flatten the permissions database, the virtualization manager is executable to:

identify a first entity in the virtual machine system for which the user has explicit permissions defined in the permissions database; and

identify a second entity in the virtual machine system that is a child of the first entity using the labeling hierarchy of entities in the virtual machine system.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein to flatten the permissions database, the virtualization manager is further executable to:

identify the role to which the user is assigned;

identify a third entity in the virtual machine system for which the role has permissions defined in the permissions database; and

identify a fourth entity in the virtual machine system that is a child of the third entity using the labeling hierarchy of entities in the virtual machine system.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein to flatten the permissions database, the virtualization manager is further executable to:

create a separate entry in the flattened database view for each unique combination of the user and one of the first, second, third and fourth entities.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the indication of whether the user has permission to access the entity is affirmative if the entry in the flattened database view comprising the user and the entity is located.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the indication of whether the user has permission to access the entity is negative if the entry in the flattened database view comprising the user and the entity is not located.

16. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed, cause a processing device to:

receive a permission request, the request indicating a user and an entity in a virtual machine system;

flatten a permissions database associated with the virtual machine system to generate a flattened database view, wherein the permissions database to store descriptive labels of entities in the virtual machine system, and wherein the flattened database view defines permissions for the user to access the entities in the virtual machine system in view of the descriptive labels, wherein to flatten the permissions database, the instructions to cause the processing device to;

identify a first set of entities in the virtual machine system for which the user has explicit permissions defined in the permissions database,

identify a second set of entities in the virtual machine system for which a role to which the user is assigned has explicit permissions defined in the permissions database,

identify a third set of entities in the virtual machine system that inherit the explicit permissions of entities in the first and second sets of entities, wherein entities in the third set of entities are assigned child labels in a labeling hierarchy of entities in the virtual machine system, and

create a separate entry in the flattened database view for each unique combination of the user and one of the entities in the first, second and third sets of entities in the virtual machine system, wherein the flattened database view comprises a stored query accessible as a virtual table in the permissions database computed from data stored in the permissions database;

determine, using the flattened database view, whether the user has permission to access the entity in the virtual machine system, wherein to determine whether the user has permission to access the entity in the virtual machine system, the instructions to cause the processing device to issue a single query to the flattened database view for an entry comprising the user and the entity; and

return an indication of whether the user has permission to access the entity in the virtual machine system.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein to flatten the permissions database, the instructions to cause the processing device to:

identify a first entity in the virtual machine system for which the user has explicit permissions defined in the permissions database; and

identify a second entity in the virtual machine system that is a child of the first entity using the labeling hierarchy of entities in the virtual machine system.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein to flatten the permissions database, the instructions to cause the processing device further to:

identify the role to which the user is assigned;

identify a third entity in the virtual machine system for which the role has permissions defined in the permissions database; and

identify a fourth entity in the virtual machine system that is a child of the third entity using the labeling hierarchy of entities in the virtual machine system.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein to flatten the permissions database, the instructions to cause the processing device further to:

create a separate entry in the flattened database view for each unique combination of the user and one of the first, second, third and fourth entities.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the indication of whether the user has permission to access the entity is affirmative if the entry in the flattened database view comprising the user and the entity is located.

21. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the indication of whether the user has permission to access the entity is negative if the entry in the flattened database view comprising the user and the entity is not located.

22. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the entity in the virtual machine system comprises at least one of a virtual machine, a virtual disk, a host server, or a virtual data center.