Centralized Application Permissions Privilege Management Nate Klingenstein 30 January 2007 OGF 19 Chapel Hill

The Saga Getting applications to relinquish authentication is pretty hard Getting applications to relinquish attribute control is harder Getting applications to relinquish control of authorizations… (fine print: do so in an inter-realm context too)

The Applications Have a Point Identity-based functions often live deep inside the application –How can you better identify and handle my authorization needs than me? –Why do I have to consult you when my application makes a decision? –Why do I need to work with you every time I want to change my permission definitions? Application databases and directories have worked great for years

The IT Guys Also Have a Point Theres tremendous duplication of effort Distributed information is more likely to be compromised Users can barely take care of one set of information, privileges, or credentials This is all weve got to live for –So we do it well Auditors exist, and also do it well –Compliance

Privilege Centralization Considerations Broader applicability –Granularity again How precise is your privilege definition? How many other source and destination systems could share your definition? The same questions apply when deciding whether to federate privileges –Intra-realm SSO & centralization is a subset of federated identity; the same tools should handle both

Privileges vs. Attributes vs. Groups We can instinctually determine what the difference is In digital systems, the distinction is less clear Is the difference only semantic? –Formats? –Management? How do these structures in source systems line up with those in apps?

Privileges Based on Attributes Were all familiar with privileges based on attributes –VOMS –Standard Shibboleth How do permissions based on attributes differ from individual privileges? –Grouping of permissions –Granularity RBAC models –MIT –NIST –Stanford –Etc.

Privileges vs. Attributes vs. Groups Redundancy and security requirements Transport protocols, profiles, bindings, formats –How much can you squeeze into SAML? –XACML transport

What does a Privilege Look Like? XACML Signet eduPersonEntitlement URL & value

Privileges for Applications What do you deliver to an application? Is a boolean good enough? If not, what do you consume? What can your authorization system provide? –What can your partners provide?

Introducing Signet Centralized privilege management system Supports privilege: –Issuance –Reissuance –Prohibition of reissuance –Delegation –Prohibition of Delegation More information forthcoming…

Integrating Privilege Systems with Applications What data format do applications want? –Conditions –Variables Push, or pull? –Protocols When? –Freshness vs. Frustration –Caching? How do you define the appropriate central data structures?

Grid Permissions Are there sufficiently common privilege requirements across grids that we can: –Pick a format for consumers? –Define a vocabulary and naming style? –Build one or more templates? –Standardize a basic set? How is this expressed in a form the grid can use? –VOMS Attributes?

Integrating Signet with Signets Dr. Jean Blue is a professor at Sandstone University and a PI of VORTEX, a virtual organization. As a PI of VORTEX, she has many VORTEX privileges and wants to administer them consistently across a variety of environments. She wants to assign her students permission to read one of the VORTEX mass- hypometers; etc. At what level do you connect the systems? With what data harmonization? Which transport mechanisms? –Which transport formats? How do they synchronize? Authorize?

Any Questions? Nate Klingenstein