Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-26
2002-04-30
Lintz, Paul R. (Department: 2171)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000, C709S217000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06381602
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to controlling users' access to documents or other resources stored on computer systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to enforcing access control criteria associated with documents at network locations other than the source data storage locations at which the documents have been created or stored.
2. The Prior State of the Art
One of the reasons that computer networks have become widely used during recent years involves the ability to make documents or other resources easily accessible by multiple users. For instance, documents stored at a data storage location associated with a file server can be made available to any number of users at remote locations. Many documents created or stored on a computer network are intended to be read or otherwise accessed only by certain individuals. Accordingly, there have been developed various techniques for permitting only authorized users to access sensitive documents.
In the absence of computer networks, computer-generated documents can be protected from unauthorized access relatively easily. Documents stored by a non-networked computer can be seen only by users having physical access to the computer or to associated data storage devices, such as floppy disks, on which the documents are stored. Most access control systems used in networked environments involve compiling access control information. Access is regulated by comparing the identity of the requesting user with the access control information of the stored data, thereby determining whether the requesting user is authorized to gain access.
In a typical access control system, the access control information exists in the form of access control lists (ACLs). An access control list generally includes at least a security identifier and a permission (or right). The security identifier specifies a particular user or group of users whose access is to be regulated by the ACL. The permission represents the type of access (i.e., read or write access) that the user is to be granted or denied. Security is enforced by comparing the user context (i.e., a code representing the identity of a user requesting access to a document) with the security identifiers and associated permissions listed in the ACL.
While ACLs and other mechanisms for defining access privileges of users have been successfully used to regulate users' access to sensitive documents in networked environments, it has been found that many access control systems are not interoperable one with another. For instance, the format of the security identifier can vary from operating system to operating system. A first access control system might employ security identifiers having the format “domain/user”, where “user” represents a user name associated with the user and “domain” represents the domain of the user, while a second access control system could use the name of a mailbox of the user or distribution lists in which the mailbox is included as the security identifier. In this case, the first access control system would not be able to interpret or apply the security identifiers of the second access control system. Conventionally, the user contexts that the access control system compares with the contents of the ACLs must be in the same format as the security identifiers. Moreover, the semantics and protocols for storing access control information in ACLs and comparing the user contexts with the ACLs can vary from system to system, thereby further preventing interoperability in the prior art.
When an access control system is established at a computer system, the computer system has generally been capable of regulating access to documents that are stored at the computer system or are otherwise in its control. However, one can imagine a networked system in which it may be desirable to protect information that is not stored at or in the control of the original computer system at which the access control lists are compiled and enforced. In one example, it may be desirable to establish an indexing system that creates a searchable index containing information that is stored at various locations in a computing environment. For instance, the information in the index could be gathered by a crawler application that gathers the information from one or more locations in the network.
In order to create a useful index of information stored in a network, the index often needs to include information that is protected from unauthorized access at its source. Conventionally, the indexing system has no way of knowing what access restrictions have been imposed on the indexed data by the source application or computer system, particularly when the indexing system does not have a native access control system that is directly compatible with the indexed data's source access control system. Likewise, the source application or computer system has no way of enforcing its access control on its data once it has been stored outside of its control at the indexing system. This problem is not limited to indexing systems, but would be generally experienced any time that secure data is to be stored outside of the direct control of its source access control system. As a result, the above-described indexing systems and other such applications have not been practical, particularly in environments where data security is important.
In view of the foregoing, it would be an advancement in the art to provide methods and systems for allowing applications and computer systems to enforce access control on their own data after the data has been stored outside of their direct control. It would be desirable to enable indexing systems to gather information stored at other locations in a network system without exposing otherwise secure information to unauthorized access.
SUMMARY AND OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to enforcing access control on secured documents that are stored outside of the direct control of the original application that would normally store and govern access to the data. According to the invention, an indexing application or any other application that stored data outside the control of the source application is adapted to cooperate with the source application to enforce access control. Users are permitted to read documents only if the user is granted read permission in accordance with the access control system of the source application.
The invention can be implemented in a network environment that includes an indexing system that compiles references to documents stored at various source locations, some of which can have access control systems that are not interoperable with the native access control system of the indexing system. According to this implementation of the invention, the indexing system can apply the access control that protects the documents at their source locations. In this way, the invention can be used to filter documents that satisfy search requests executed by the indexing system. Only those documents that the requesting user is authorized to read are disclosed to the user.
According to one aspect of the invention, the indexing system has a security provider for each access control system that protects indexed documents and is not compatible with the native access control system of the indexing system. The security provider is a program module that enforces access security on documents in accordance with the access control system that protects the documents at their source location.
When a search request identifies one or more documents that are to be potentially disclosed to a user, the search engine only discloses the documents that the user is authorized to read. When a search request is issued and a document is identified for potential disclosure to the user, the appropriate security provider, in cooperation with the source location of the document, translates the user context that identifies the user to a format that is compatible with the security provider and the corresponding access control syste
Sanu Sankrant
Shoroff Srikanth
Terek F. Soner
Wallace Andrew
Lintz Paul R.
Workman & Nydegger & Seeley
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