AUTHORIZATION IN A DISTRIBUTED SYSTEM USING ACCESS CONTROL LISTS AND GROUPS

• Main Authors: Burrows Michael, Abadi Martin, Taly Ankur, Shankar Asim, Pucha Himabindu, Sadovsky Adam
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 01.12.2016
• Subjects: ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHICCOMMUNICATION

In a method of controlling sharing of an object between entities in a distributed system, a processor will identify an object and generate an access control list (ACL) for the object so that the ACL includes a list of clauses. Each clause will include a blessing pattern that will match one or more blessings, and at least one of the clauses also may include a reference to one or more groups. Each group represents a set of strings that represent blessing patterns or fragments of blessing patterns. The processor may generate each clause of the ACL as either a permit clause or a deny clause to indicate whether an entity or entities that have a blessing matched by the blessing pattern are permitted to access the object. The processor will save the ACL to a data store for use in responding to a request to access the object.