Repository Framework Security 

Use

The repository framework uses permissions and access control lists (ACLs) to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information. Permissions define the actions that are allowed on a resource. They are associated with principals (users, groups or roles) in ACLs. An ACL is assigned to a specific resource. It specifies the permissions that principals hold to perform actions on the resource.  The repository framework always checks whether a principal holds the required permissions, before executing an action on a resource.

Features

Applications usually do not have to explicitly deal with security because whenever they try to access a resource, the responsible repository manager or service checks whether the required permissions are available. Only extensions of the repository framework and applications that allow users to change permissions need to know how the repository manager checks permissions.

Permissions

The repository framework implements the following permissions:

Permissions for Collections and Resources

Permission	Permitted Action
Read content	Read the content of the resource
Read properties	Read the properties of the resource
Write properties	Write, update, or delete properties of the resource
Delete	Delete the resource

Permissions for Collections Only

Permission	Permitted Action
List child nodes	Retrieve the children of a collection
Create child node	Create a child in a collection
Read node properties	Read the collection’s properties or names
Write node properties	Write the collection’s properties or names
Delete child node	Delete a child from a collection

Access Control Lists (ACLs)

An ACL is assigned to a resource and guards the resource against illegal access. It contains access control entries (ACEs) that specify principals and the set of permissions they hold for actions on the resource. Each ACL has at least one owner. The owner is allowed to modify the ACL and is granted all available permissions for the resource (full control). All other principals are denied permissions on the resource, until they are explicitly granted permission in an ACE.

If a resource is not assigned an ACL, it inherits an ACL from its parent. The process of inheritance continues all the way up the hierarchy until an ACL is found or until the root resource is reached. If no ACL exists, all permissions are implicitly granted to all users.

See also:

Handling Security