Policy Enforcement System for Compute Node Data Masking
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Solution Overview
Problem
In distributed storage and processing systems like HDFS, there is a need for enforcing access policies at each compute node to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access, as traditional systems often respond with unauthorized access errors rather than masking sensitive information.
Innovation Solution
A policy enforcement system integrated into each compute node maintains policies associated with user credentials, filters and masks sensitive data based on these policies, ensuring only authorized data is accessible to compute processes without interfering with existing communication protocols.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional access control mechanisms are used in distributed storage systems, then unauthorized access is blocked, but sensitive data is still fully exposed to authorized users without any privacy protection
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments data access into multiple levels: full data access for certain operations, masked data for others. The masking function divides the data representation into visible and hidden portions, allowing selective disclosure of information while maintaining access control.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different quality of data disclosure to different portions of data or different access scenarios. The masking function can be configured to protect specific columns, rows, or data fields while leaving other portions unmasked, creating local variations in data visibility based on access requirements.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If data masking is implemented at the compute node level, then data privacy is enhanced, but system complexity increases due to additional policy enforcement mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a policy enforcement module as an intermediary between the compute node and the storage system. This module intercepts data access requests, applies appropriate masking based on policies, and returns masked data to compute nodes, thereby adding privacy protection without requiring changes to the core storage or compute infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
The masking function is configured with policy rules that automatically determine what data to mask and how to mask it. The system self-regulates data disclosure based on predefined policies associated with user credentials, eliminating the need for manual intervention or complex real-time decision-making about data masking.
3Reliability
If policy enforcement modules are added to each compute node, then data access control is improved, but communication protocol compatibility may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The policy enforcement module acts as an intermediary layer that translates between existing communication protocols and the new masking requirements. It intercepts standard data access requests, applies masking transformations, and returns masked data using the same protocol interfaces, thereby maintaining protocol compatibility while enhancing access control.
Solution Approach 2:
The masking function dynamically changes data parameters (such as obscuring portions of data, replacing values with tokens, or transforming data representations) based on policy requirements. These parameter changes are applied transparently to existing data streams without altering the fundamental communication protocol structure.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for maintaining, by a policy enforcement system in a first compute node, a plurality of policies and data associating a plurality of user credentials with the plurality of policies. A request is received from a compute process for data from a file system in the first compute node. The request includes user credentials. The request for data is sent to the file system, and the data is received from the file system. Based on the received user credentials and the data associating the plurality of user credentials with the plurality of policies, one or more policies that correspond to the received user credentials is selected from the plurality of policies. The policy enforcement system filters the data from the file system based on the one or more policies, and sends the filtered data to the compute process.