Hierarchical Phased Access Control for Multitenant Database Security
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current multitenant database security techniques are inadequate in providing dynamic and flexible access control, particularly in evolving runtime environments, leading to vulnerabilities that can expose higher-level resources to unauthorized access and potential security breaches.
Innovation Solution
A dynamic, hierarchical security model that uses a global policy manager to authorize access based on the credentials and runtime characteristics of database entities, allowing for phased and role-based access control, ensuring that access is restricted and managed across multiple tenants in a multitenant environment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a container DBMS is used to consolidate multiple PDBs and share computing resources, then resource utilization and productivity are improved, but security vulnerabilities and the risk of unauthorized access increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the access control system into multiple phases (connection phase, transaction phase, commit phase) and implements phase-specific security policies. Each phase has distinct access rules, creating a segmented security architecture that prevents unauthorized cross-phase access while maintaining resource sharing benefits.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a security manager as an intermediary component that mediates between database entities and protected resources. The security manager enforces cardinal methods and phase-based access control, acting as a protective layer that allows resource consolidation while preventing security breaches.
2Reliability
If static security regimes are used to isolate database service processes, then security isolation is improved, but adaptability to evolving runtime environments deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic access control where security permissions are not fixed but change based on the runtime phase and role of database entities. Access rights are dynamically adjusted during different phases (connection, transaction, commit) and based on entity roles, enabling the system to adapt to evolving runtime environments while maintaining security isolation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes security parameters dynamically based on phase and role. Instead of static permissions, the system modifies access parameters according to the current phase in the cardinal method and the role of the entity, allowing security isolation to be maintained while adapting to runtime changes.
3Reliability
If hierarchical access control is implemented across system and tenant hierarchies, then unauthorized access to higher-level resources is prevented, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a nested hierarchical structure where security contexts are nested across multiple levels (system hierarchy and tenant hierarchy). Each level contains security policies that inherit and extend from parent levels, creating a nested doll-like structure that manages complexity through hierarchical nesting while maintaining comprehensive access control.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by implementing phase-specific and role-specific security policies at different levels of the hierarchy. Each phase and role has tailored access control rules appropriate to its specific requirements, rather than applying uniform security policies throughout, which reduces complexity by making security decisions locally appropriate to each context.
Data Source
AI summary
Herein are multitenant database security techniques for fine-grained and dynamic access control of protected resources according to phases and roles. In an embodiment, a computer associates a process with a particular pluggable database of many pluggable databases in a container database in a database management system (DBMS). From the process, a request is received to access a protected resource that the particular pluggable database does not contain. Based on the protected resource and the particular pluggable database, the DBMS dynamically decides, in response to receiving the request, whether to permit access to the protected resource. Based on authorization by the DBMS, the protected resource is accessed to fulfil the request. In an embodiment, centrally managed policy decisions for restricted access are dynamically employed across a fleet of databases through a global policy manager.