Secure search performance improvement

• US 8,725,770 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2012
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Koide, Hiroshi, Ture, Mark, Krishnaprasad, Muralidhar, Davis, Mark, Hsin, Cindy, Bhavsar, Meeten, Nimani, Visar, Ouyang, Hui, Bhatkar, Sachin, Chang, Thomas, Baby, Thomas, Liao, David, Yang, Steve
• Primary Examiner(s): Perveen, Rehana
• Assistant Examiner(s): BUI, THUY T
• Application Number:
  US13/676,592
• Publication Number:
  US 20130185332A1
• Time in Patent Office: 545 Days
• Field of Search: 707/783
• US Class Current: 707/783
• 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 21/6236 between heterogeneous systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0815 providing single-sign-on or federations

Abstract

A flexible and extensible architecture allows for secure searching across an enterprise. Such an architecture can provide a simple Internet-like search experience to users searching secure content inside (and outside) the enterprise. The architecture allows for the crawling and searching of a variety or of sources across an enterprise, regardless of whether any of these sources conform to a conventional user role model. The architecture further allows for security attributes to be submitted at query time, for example, in order to provide real-time secure access to enterprise resources. The user query also can be transformed to provide for dynamic querying that provides for a more current result list than can be obtained for static queries.

Claims

1. A method of improving performance for a secure search, the method comprising:

generating indexing information for a document of a plurality of documents, wherein the document includes a set of document authorization attributes which include an access control list and the access control list includes one or more access control list entries, wherein the indexing information comprises information about content of the document and information about security access requirements for accessing the document;

storing, in an index, the indexing information generated for the document;

receiving a set of user identity attributes and a query on behalf of a user, the query including a set of search keywords, wherein an identity management system is used to determine the set of user identity attributes based on the set of document authorization attributes and the access control list entities, wherein the set of document authorization attributes comprises zero or more attributes, each attribute corresponding to one or more attribute values, and an attribute value corresponding to at least one attribute of the set of document authorization attributes specifies at least one of a group, role, or project associated with the user and an attribute of the set of document authorization attributes is one of a grant or a deny attribute, and an attribute value comprises a global universal identifier (GUID);

in response to the query, using the index to identify a set of identified documents; and

returning search results based on the set of identified documents.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one access control list entry of the one or more access control list entries includes a user identifier or a user role identifier.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one access control list entry of the one or more access control list entries includes a user group identifier or project identifier.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each document of the plurality of documents is associated with at least one application of a plurality of applications.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one application provides access to said each document when the security access requirements are met.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein for each document in the set of identified documents:

a) the information about the content of said each document includes one or more keywords of the set of search keywords; and

b) the user identity attributes meet the security access requirements, wherein said each identified document is determined to be accessible to the user based on the set of document authorization attributes stored in the index without further contacting said at least one application that provides secure access to said each identified document.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the search results are returned in rank order based on relevance of each search result to the query.

8. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having sets of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

generate indexing information for a document of a plurality of documents, wherein the document includes a set of document authorization attributes which include an access control list and the access control list includes one or more access control list entries, wherein the indexing information comprises information about content of the document and information about security access requirements for accessing the document;

store, in an index, the indexing information generated for the document;

receive a set of user identity attributes and a query on behalf of a user, the query including a set of search keywords, wherein an identity management system is used to determine the set of user identity attributes based on the set of document authorization attributes and the access control list entities, wherein the set of document authorization attributes comprises zero or more attributes, each attribute corresponding to one or more attribute values, and an attribute value corresponding to at least one attribute of the set of document authorization attributes specifies at least one of a group, role, or project associated with the user and an attribute of the set of document authorization attributes is one of a grant or a deny attribute, and an attribute value comprises a global universal identifier (GUID);

in response to the query, use the index to identify a set of identified documents; and

return search results based on the set of identified documents.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein at least one access control list entry of the one or more access control list entries includes a user identifier or a user role identifier.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein at least one access control list entry of the one or more access control list entries includes a user group identifier or project identifier.

11. A system for improving performance for a secure search, the system comprising:

a memory device; and

a processor in communication with the memory device, wherein the memory device has sets of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

generate indexing information for a document of a plurality of documents, wherein the document includes a set of document authorization attributes which include an access control list and the access control list includes one or more access control list entries, wherein the indexing information comprises information about content of the document and information about security access requirements for accessing the document;

store, in an index, the indexing information generated for the document;

receive a set of user identity attributes and a query on behalf of a user, the query including a set of search keywords, wherein an identity management system is used to determine the set of user identity attributes based on the set of document authorization attributes and the access control list entities, wherein the set of document authorization attributes comprises zero or more attributes, each attribute corresponding to one or more attribute values, and an attribute value corresponding to at least one attribute of the set of document authorization attributes specifies at least one of a group, role, or project associated with the user and an attribute of the set of document authorization attributes is one of a grant or a deny attribute, and an attribute value comprises a global universal identifier (GUID);

in response to the query, use the index to identify a set of identified documents; and

return search results based on the set of identified documents.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein for each document in the set of identified documents:

a) the information about the content of said each document includes one or more keywords of the set of search keywords; and

b) the user identity attributes meet the security access requirements, wherein said each identified document is determined to be accessible to the user based on the set of document authorization attributes stored in the index without further contacting said at least one application that provides secure access to said each identified document.