SYSTEM AND METHODS PROVIDING ENHANCED SECURITY MODEL

• US 20080022358A1
• Filed: 07/30/2007
• Published: 01/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ward, Richard, Leach, Paul, Anand, Sanjay, Raman, Balan, Agarwal, Sameet
• Granted Patent: US 7,971,230 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/1
• 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 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: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and methodology to facilitate security for data items residing within (or associated with) a hierarchical database or storage structure. A database security system is provided having a hierarchical data structure associated with one or more data items. The system includes a security component that applies a security policy to the data items from a global location or region associated with a database. Various components and processes are employed to enable explicit and/or inherited security properties to be received by and propagated to the data items depending on the type of data structure encountered or processed.

Claims

1. A method to facilitate data item security, comprising:

defining at least one security policy for a hierarchical data structure;

defining at least one security region for the hierarchical data structure; and

applying the security policy to the hierarchical data structure from the security region.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically supporting at least one explicit and inherited security policy.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically ordering security policies.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising processing security policies for at least one of a tree structure and a containment hierarchy.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising mapping a security policy to a security region from a remote location from a database.

6. The method of claim 1, the security policy is associated with an Access Control List having one or more Access Control Entries.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising automatically arranging one or more Access Control Entries in the Access Control List to determine a security policy that is enforced for an item.

8. A system to facilitate database security processing, comprising:

means for defining a security policy;

means for determining a security region for the security policy; and

means for applying the security policy to at least one of a tree structure and a containment hierarchy in accordance with the security region.

9. A computer readable medium having a data structure stored thereon, comprising:

a first data field related to a security region associated with a hierarchical data structure;

a second data field that relates to a security policy; and

a third data field that links the security policy to the security region.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 9, further comprising a field for an access mask specifying at least one of object-specific access rights, standard access rights, and generic access rights.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 9, further comprising a security field for similarly protected security regions.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, the security table field includes at least one of an Item Identity, an Item Ordpath, an Explicit Item, a Path ACL, and a Region ACL.