ACCESS CONTROL USING IMPERSONIZATION

• US 20160359924A1
• Filed: 08/15/2016
• Published: 12/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Roth, Gregory Branchek, Wren, Matthew James, Pratt, Brian Irl
• Granted Patent: US 9,699,219 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/335 for accessing specific resources, e.g. using Kerberos tickets
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/60 Protecting data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/602 Providing cryptographic facilities or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/062 applying encryption of the keys cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key distribution using key encryption key H04L9/0822
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/126 the source of the received data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/18 using different networks or channels, e.g. using out of band channels cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key distribution involving distinctive intermediate devices or communication paths H04L9/0827; cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for authentication using a plurality of channels H04L9/3215
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/205 involving negotiation or determination of the one or more network security mechanisms to be used, e.g. by negotiation between the client and the server or between peers or by selection according to the capabilities of the entities involved negotiation of communication capabilities H04L69/24
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures

Abstract

A first service submits a request to a second service on behalf of a customer of a service provider. The request may have been triggered by a request of the customer to the first service. To process the request, the second service evaluates one or more policies to determine whether fulfillment of the request is allowed by policy associated with the customer. The one or more policies may state one or more conditions on one or more services that played a role in submission of the request. If determined that the policy allows fulfillment of the request, the second service fulfills the request.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

an authentication system that processes an authentication request by verifying an electronic signature of a first request and provides an authentication response having information identifying a set of computing resource services being a cause of the authentication request;

a first computing resource service that receives the first request and, as a result, submits the authentication request to the authentication system, receives the authentication response and, as part of fulfilling the first request, uses the authentication response to submit a second request;

a policy evaluation system that evaluates, based at least in part on the information identifying the set of computing resource services, a set of policies applicable to the second request to determine a policy determination;

a second computing resource service that receives the second request and processes the second request in accordance with the policy determination; and

a third computing resource service that processes a third request originating from the second computing resource service and triggered by the second request, by the first request, and the by the authentication request, the processing in accordance with a policy based at least in part on a user profile associated with the authentication request and information identifying a set of computing resource services that triggered the third request, including the first and second computing resource service.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein:

fulfillment of the second request includes use of a first cryptographic key specified in the second request to perform one or more cryptographic operations;

fulfillment of the third request includes use of a second cryptographic key specified in the third request to perform one or more cryptographic operations; and

the set of policies specify one or more conditions required to be satisfied before the first and second cryptographic keys are usable for request fulfillment.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the first request is submitted on behalf of a customer of a computing resource service provider of the first, second and third computing resource services; and

the set of policies are configured such that the policy determination is different than the policy determination would be if the first request was received from an entity that is not a customer.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more of the first, second and third computing resource service further implement an application programming interface through which application programming interface requests are submitable, by a customer of a computing resource service provider of the first, second and third computing resource services, to define one or more conditions for fulfillment of requests submitted by the first, second and third computing resource services on behalf of the customer.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the second service comprises an application programming interface through which customers of a computing resource service provider of the first, second and third computing resource services are able to submit requests to be fulfilled by the first, second and third computing resource service.

6. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

under the control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,

receiving, from a first entity on behalf of the service provider account, a first request to perform one or more operations in connection with the one or more computing resources and, as a result, submitting an authentication request to an authentication system identifying a set of computing resource services being a cause of the authentication request, including a first computing resource service;

fulfilling the first request by receiving an authentication response based at least in part on the authentication request having information identifying a set of computing resource services being a cause of the authentication request, and using the authentication response to submit a second request to a second computing resource service, the fulfilling the first request further based at least in part on a policy specifying one or more conditions for fulfillability of the second request submitted as part of fulfillment of the first request, the one or more conditions based at least in part on an entity submitting the second request;

based at least in part on the policy, processing the second request from the first computing resource to perform one or more operations by the second computing resource; and

based at least in part on the policy, processing the third request from the second computing resource to perform one or more operations by a third computing resource.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein:

the one or more resources include a cryptographic key; and

fulfillment of the received first, second and third request involves performance of one or more cryptographic operations using the cryptographic key.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the received first, second and third requests include an identifier of the cryptographic key.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein respective processing first, second and third requests based at least in part on the policy comprises:

respectively determining, based at least in part on information provided with the respective first, second and third requests, one or more services that each submitted a corresponding request thereby becoming a cause of the respective first, second and third requests; and

respectively determining, based at least in part on the respectively determined one or more services that respective fulfillment of the first, second and third requests is in compliance with the policy.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the information provided with the request is encoded in a token generated by an authentication service.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein:

the first entity is a first service of a service provider for the service provider account; and

the first request is triggered by a customer request submitted to the first service, the customer request corresponding to the service provider account.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the policy requires the first request to be submitted from a user associated with the service provider account, and if not, the first request will be denied.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising, as a result of receiving the first, second and third request, writing a set of one or more intermediate services that caused the first, second and third request to be identified to an audit log in association with the first, second and third request respectively.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein:

the first entity is a subsystem of the of a service provider for the service provider account; and

the set of policies are configured such that the policy determination is different than the policy determination would be if the first request was received from a user of the service provider account compared to if the first request was not received from a user of the service provider account.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein:

the policy specifies a cryptographic key; and

respectively processing the first, second and third request based at least in part on the policy is performed as a result of use of the cryptographic key required for fulfillment of the first, second and third request.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein:

the policy specifies a tag value; and

respectively processing the first, second and third request based at least in part on the policy is performed as a result of the first, second and third request being applicable to a set of compute resources associated with the tag value.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer system to:

for a pending second request triggered by a first request, determine a first set of one or more intermediate services, including a first service, that caused submission of the second request by submission of the first request;

determine, based at least in part on the determined first set of one or more intermediate services, whether fulfillment of the second request complies with a set of policies applicable to the second request, the set of policies applicable to the second request including at least a policy that identifies at least a subset of the first set of one or more intermediate services;

cause the second request to be processed based at least in part on whether fulfillment of the second request complies with the set of policies applicable to the second request;

for a pending third request, determine a second set of one or more intermediate services, including a second service, that caused submission of the third request triggered by the second request;

determine, based at least in part on the determined second set of one or more intermediate services, whether fulfillment of the third request complies with a set of policies applicable to the third request, the set of policies applicable to the third request including at least the policy that identifies one or more authorized computing resources including at least a subset of the second set of one or more intermediate services; and

cause the pending third request to be processed by a third service, based at least in part on whether fulfillment of the third request complies with the set of policies applicable to the third request including a determination that each of the second set of one or more intermediate services is an authorized computing resource identified by the policy.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein determining the first and second set of one or more intermediate services includes analyzing a first and second token provided with the second and third request respectively and generated by an authentication service.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the pending second request is to access, in plaintext form, data persistently stored in encrypted form.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the set of policies applicable to the second request includes at least one policy determinable based at least in part on the data persistently stored in encrypted form.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the set of policies applicable to the second request includes at least one policy determinable based at least in part on one or more keys necessary for decrypting the data persistently stored in encrypted form.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein:

the computer system is operated by a service provider; and

the first request is submitted on behalf of a customer of the service provider by an entity different than the customer.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors of the computer system, cause the computer system to:

determine respective first and second a set of computing resources affected by fulfillment of the second and third request; and

determine, based at least in part on the determined first and second set of computing resources, the respective sets of policies applicable to the second and third request.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors of the computer system, cause the computer system to receive at least a subset of the respective sets of policies applicable to the second and third request from the customer.