Unified API for Interception and Authentication
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Solution Overview
Problem
In cybersecurity computing environments, providing shared data to multiple clients in a harmonized manner is challenging due to disparate security requirements and varying user interface specifications, leading to customer confusion and potential security issues.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a unified application programming interface (API) that intercepts and authenticates requests from clients, authorizing data access based on role-based access control (RBAC) and a single query language, ensuring consistent data rendering across different user interfaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If disparate unique APIs are used for each web application to satisfy specific client requirements, then each application can be customized to meet its specific security and functional requirements, but the system complexity increases and data consistency across different user interfaces becomes difficult to maintain
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a unified API that serves multiple web applications and client types simultaneously. This single API handles authentication, authorization, and data retrieval for various clients (e.g., internal employees, external contractors, partners) with different security requirements, eliminating the need for separate APIs for each application or client type while maintaining adaptability through configurable access control policies
Solution Approach 2:
The unified API acts as an intermediary layer between diverse clients and the underlying data sources. It mediates authentication and authorization requests, translating varied client requirements into standardized access control decisions based on RBAC policies, thereby simplifying the system architecture while preserving the ability to meet specific client needs
2Adaptability or versatility
If different specifications are used to render shared data in different user interfaces, then each interface can be optimized for its specific client type, but ensuring data consistency and harmonized rendering across interfaces becomes increasingly difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The unified API enforces homogeneous data structures and authentication mechanisms across all user interfaces. By returning data in standardized formats and applying consistent RBAC policies, it ensures that shared data is rendered harmoniously across different client types while allowing each interface to customize its presentation layer
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple disparate APIs are maintained for different web applications, then each application can have its own security model, but the overall security posture becomes harder to manage and vulnerabilities may exist due to inconsistent security implementations
Solution Approach 1:
The unified API provides a universal security framework that serves all web applications through a single authentication and authorization mechanism. It implements Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) that can be configured to meet different security requirements for various client types while maintaining consistent security enforcement across the entire system
Solution Approach 2:
The unified API uses configurable RBAC parameters to adapt security policies to different client types and applications. By changing access control parameters rather than maintaining separate security models, the system achieves both application-specific security customization and overall security consistency through a single managed interface
4Device complexity
If a unified API is implemented to simplify data access across clients, then system complexity is reduced and data consistency is improved, but flexibility in meeting specific client requirements and security needs may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The unified API serves as an intelligent intermediary that maintains low system complexity while providing high adaptability. It receives requests from diverse clients, translates them into standardized operations, and applies appropriate RBAC policies based on client type and requirements, thereby simplifying the architecture while preserving customization capabilities
Solution Approach 2:
The unified API achieves flexibility through configurable RBAC parameters rather than through complex architectural variations. By adjusting access control parameters, roles, and permissions within the single API framework, the system can adapt to different client requirements without increasing overall system complexity
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein are methods, systems, and processes for accepting and servicing interface agnostic validated unified platform queries. A request for shared data associated with web applications received from a user interface that is rendered by a client based on a specification is intercepted. The request is forwarded to a unified application programming interface (API) instead of a disparate unique API associated with the web applications. The request from the client is authenticated externally using the unified API and the request for the shared data is authorized to be displayed in the user interface based on the unified API instead of the specification.