DAV ACLs Lisa Lippert Microsoft
Agenda Background –drafts, terms, how file systems use ACLs –Other ACLs efforts Scenarios Goals –goals, may-haves, won’t-haves
Background Drafts: –draft-ietf-webdav-acl-reqts-00.txt –draft-ietf-webdav-acl-00.txt (expired) Terms –ACL –ACE –Principal
File System ACLs Resource x principal x right --> yes/no Each resource (file or directory) has its own list Each list has entries for various principals and rights Users, groups, “All Users” principal Common rights: read, write, execute Other rights: list members, read ACLs, write ACLs... Directories may be treated differently than files Access rights may be denied as well as granted Various rules for ownership, inheritance, avoiding conflict
Other ACLs efforts LDAP IMAP: rfc2086 –lookup, read, write, insert, post, create, delete, administer, keep seen/unseen info across sessions –Rights apply only to mailboxes CAP (Calendar Access Protocol) CAT
Scenarios Basic allow read/write scenario Different authors on different resources within one collection Deny access to a member of a group Delegation without relinquishing control High-security: no evidence that a hidden file exists
Goals Allow access controls to be read and set Support most frequently used rights –read, write, delete, add child, list children, delete children, read ACL, write ACL Support grant, deny Allow access controls to apply to resources and collections
Goals Continued Flexible principal specification –userid & domain, group & domain, all, all authenticated Ability to add and remove access settings without resetting entire list
Inheritance goals Static inheritance Dynamic inheritance
Extensibility and Discovery Add new types of rights to resources or types of resources Ability to discover new rights
Security: Ownership Allow resource managers to grant and deny access to read and write access settings Ownership –“Owner” is the principal to whom permissions cannot be effectively denied –Useful to have “set owner” as well as “set ACLs” right (solves delegation scenario) –Must be supported
Security: Encryption To protect the ACL as sensitive data –Encryption could reduce chance of snooping –Snooping is particularly dangerous when account names are sent across the wire June WG decision: –there should be on-the-wire protection of ACL data –It should be possible to deny unprotected transactions
May-have Property-level access control Roles (problematic) Management: easy to block or log ACLs
Out of Scope how groups are or should be modeled Use of certificates to prove that a user has access Time-out access control Absolute predictability Sensitivity Delegation