External Policy Service for OS Resource Access Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current operating systems, such as Linux and Unix, have limitations in their security models, particularly in managing access permissions for multiple users, groups, and roles, making it cumbersome to implement customized security policies for OS-level resources.
Innovation Solution
An external policy management service is used to control access to OS-level resources by defining security policies that apply to specific principals, resources, actions, and conditions, with a kernel-mode authorization interceptor routing system calls for policy evaluation and enforcement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If native operating system permissions are used to manage access to OS-level resources, then the system structure remains simple, but the ability to implement customized security policies for multiple users, groups, and roles is limited and cumbersome
Solution Approach 1:
An external policy management service is introduced as an intermediary between users and OS-level resources. This service receives authorization requests from users, evaluates them against defined security policies, and returns authorization decisions to the operating system. This mediator architecture enables customized security policies without modifying the core OS structure, resolving the contradiction between adaptability and complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The security management function is segmented into separate components: the external policy management service handles policy definition and evaluation, while the operating system kernel handles resource access control. This segmentation allows the OS to remain simple while gaining enhanced security policy customization capabilities through the external service.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple components are used to manage access to various resources (OS permissions, database privileges), then comprehensive resource control is achieved, but the overall system becomes complex and challenging to manage
Solution Approach 1:
The external policy management service provides a universal interface for managing security policies across different resource types (OS-level resources, database resources, etc.). Instead of requiring separate management components for each resource type, the service handles all authorization requests through a unified policy evaluation mechanism, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining comprehensive control.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple security management functions are merged into a single external policy management service. This service consolidates policy definition, policy evaluation, and authorization decision-making that were previously distributed across multiple components, thereby simplifying the overall security model while preserving the ability to control access to various resources.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, devices, and methods are provided for authorizing access to database management system (DBMS) resources using security policies managed by a service external to the DBMS. A DBMS may be provisioned to obtain a database request, identify one or more securable resources that from applications, determine a request context for the system call, and sends a request to an external policy management service. The policy management service may be used to perform a policy evaluation to determine whether to grant access to the securable resources. In some cases, policies are cached by the DBMS. In various examples, the DBMS and policy management service are both hosted on resources managed by a computing resource service provider on behalf of a customer to run mainframe workloads.