Hierarchical RBAC for Multi-Tenant Data Security
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current data management systems face challenges in providing fine-grained access control for hierarchical resources across multi-tenant environments, where tenants and subtenants share resources, leading to potential unauthorized access and data security breaches.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a role-based access control (RBAC) system that assigns customized roles to tenants and users based on permissions, ensuring that users' effective permissions do not exceed the tenant's permissions, and using a multi-tenancy RBAC scheme to enforce access control at various levels of the hierarchy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a multi-tenancy system shares resources across tenants and subtenants, then resource utilization and scalability are improved, but access control complexity and security risks increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments access control into multiple hierarchical levels (tenant level and subtenant level) with distinct permission sets. Each level can independently manage access to resources, allowing fine-grained control while maintaining the shared resource architecture. This segmentation resolves the contradiction by enabling complex multi-tenancy scenarios without overwhelming access control complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a nested access control structure where subtenants are contained within tenants, and each nested level has its own permission hierarchy. The subtenant permission set is nested within the tenant permission set, allowing inheritance and refinement. This nesting approach enables resource sharing across multiple levels while maintaining clear access control boundaries.
2Manufacturing precision
If role-based access control assigns customized roles to users, then access control precision is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent defines roles as universal templates that can be applied across different tenants and subtenants. A single role definition can serve multiple purposes within the hierarchical structure, reducing the need for custom role creation for each scenario. This universality maintains access control precision while simplifying system complexity through role reuse.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent allows dynamic adjustment of role parameters (permissions) based on the hierarchical level and tenant context. Instead of creating entirely different roles for each level, the system modifies role parameters adaptively. This parameter change approach enables precise access control tailored to each level while avoiding the complexity of maintaining separate role definitions.
3Reliability
If access control is enforced at all user interfaces and hierarchy levels, then security is improved, but ease of operation decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service access control where the system automatically enforces permission checks based on the user's role and hierarchical level without requiring manual intervention. Access control decisions are made autonomously by the system, maintaining strong security while simplifying the user experience. Users interact with resources normally, and the system handles the complexity of permission enforcement in the background.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, systems, and devices for data management are described. A data management system (DMS) may implement multi-tenancy role based access control (RBAC). In accordance with the multi-tenancy based RBAC, tenant organizations of a DMS may be assigned permissions (i.e., privileges) for a given data management cluster and/or computing objects within a data management cluster. Customized user roles (RBAC roles) may also be created for a given tenant. For example, a role may be defined based on a corresponding set of permissions (e.g., permissions associated with computing objects, data management clusters, or data sources associated with the tenant). A user within a tenant may be assigned a user role, which may be a customized role, and the effective permissions for the user may be based on which permissions of the user's assigned role are also within the scope of the tenant's permissions.