Secure Enterprise Search URL Modification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing search systems face challenges in securely accessing and indexing enterprise data due to complex security hierarchies and dynamic access controls, particularly in environments like eBusiness applications where traditional user role models are insufficient, leading to complications in crawling and querying across disparate systems.
Innovation Solution
A flexible and extensible architecture that enables authentication, authorization, and secure search across enterprise systems, allowing for real-time access to secure resources by submitting security attributes at query time, and providing dynamic querying and suggested content relevant to user queries, while minimizing the storage of security credentials.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional user role models are used for accessing enterprise data, then the system is simple to implement, but the system cannot handle complex security hierarchies and dynamic access controls in enterprise environments
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a crawler component as an intermediary that mediates between the search system and enterprise data sources with complex security requirements. The crawler handles authentication and authorization by obtaining security credentials and submitting security attributes during crawling and querying operations, thereby shielding the user from complex security mechanisms while enabling access to enterprise data with hierarchical security controls
2Reliability
If security credentials are stored for all enterprise systems, then authorized access can be ensured, but security credential storage becomes complex and credentials may become outdated
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic credential management where the crawler obtains security credentials dynamically before crawling or querying operations rather than storing them statically. Security credentials are obtained on-demand from identity management systems, and security attributes are submitted in real-time during operations, ensuring credentials are current without requiring long-term storage
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary authentication by obtaining security credentials before executing crawling or querying operations. The crawler obtains necessary security credentials and user identity information in advance of the actual data access operation, ensuring authorization is established before the operation commences
3Reliability
If the crawler is programmed to be aware of all security requirements of each application, then secure access to all systems is achieved, but the crawling process becomes drastically complicated and slow
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal crawler component that can access multiple enterprise data sources with different security requirements through a single, unified interface. The crawler handles diverse authentication and authorization mechanisms (LDAP, Kerberos, form-based, etc.) through standardized methods, eliminating the need to program each application's specific security requirements individually while maintaining secure access across heterogeneous systems
4Loss of information
If security attributes are submitted at query time for dynamic access, then current and relevant results are delivered, but the querying process requires real-time security attribute retrieval
Solution Approach 1:
The system retrieves security attributes in advance during the crawling phase and stores them with the indexed data. When queries are executed, the pre-retrieved security attributes are already available in the index, eliminating the need for real-time security attribute retrieval during querying operations while still delivering current and relevant results
Data Source
AI summary
A flexible and extensible architecture allows for secure searching across an enterprise. Such an architecture can provide a simple Internet-like search experience to users searching secure content inside (and outside) the enterprise. The architecture allows for the crawling and searching of a variety of sources across an enterprise, regardless of whether any of these sources conform to a conventional user role model. The architecture further allows for security attributes to be submitted at query time, for example, in order to provide real-time secure access to enterprise resources. The user query also can be transformed to provide for dynamic querying that provides for a more current result list than can be obtained for static queries.