Download Lecture3 - The University of Texas at Dallas

Access Control in Data
Management Systems
Dr. Bhavani Thuraisingham
The University of Texas at Dallas
Access Control and Policies in
Data Management Systems
September 2013
Outline
 Discretionary Access Control in Relational Databases
 Mandatory Access Control in Relational Databases
- Security Constraints
 Types of Access Control
- Inference problem, Role-based, Temporal, Usage
 Access Control in Other Databases
- Objects, Federated
 Current Trends in Access Control
- Date Warehousing, Semantic Web, Privacy Control
 Next Steps in Access Control
Access Control in Relational Databases:
1975 - Present
 Access Control policies were developed initially for file systems
- E.g., Read/write policies for files
 Access control in databases started with the work in System R and
Ingres Projects
- Access Control rules were defined for databases, relations,
tuples, attributes and elements
- SQL and QUEL languages were extended

GRANT and REVOKE Statements

Read access on EMP to User group A Where
EMP.Salary < 30K and EMP.Dept <> Security
- Query Modification:

Modify the query according to the access control rules

Retrieve all employee information where salary < 30K and
Dept is not Security
Query Modification Algorithm
 Inputs: Query, Access Control Rules
 Output: Modified Query
 Algorithm:
- Given a query Q, examine all the access control rules relevant to
the query
- Introduce a Where Clause to the query that negates access to
the relevant attributes in the access control rules

Example: rules are John does not have access to Salary in
EMP and Budget in DEPT

Query is to join the EMP and DEPT relations on Dept #

Modify the query to Join EMP and DEPT on Dept # and
project on all attributes except Salary and Budget
- Output is the resulting query
Mandatory Access Control (MAC) in
Databases: 1982- Present
 Bell and LaPadula Policy adapted for databases
-
Read at or below your level and Write at your level; Granularity of
classification: Databases, Relations, Tuples, Attributes, Elements
 Security Architectures
-
Operating system providing mandatory access control and DBMS is
untrusted with respect to MAC (e.g., SRI’s SeaView)
-
Trusted Subject Architecture where DBMS is trusted with respect to
MAC (e.g., TRW’s ASD and ASD Views)
-
Integrity Lock where Trusted front-end computes checksums (e.g.,
MITRE’s MISTRESS Prototype)
-
Distributed Architecture where data is distributed according to security
levels and access through trusted front-end (e.g., NRL’s SINTRA)
Extended Kernel for Security Policy Enforcement such as constraints
(e.g., Honeywell’s Lock Data Views)
Security Policies / Access Control Rules
 Simple Constraint: John cannot access the attribute Salary of
relation EMP
 Content-based constraint: If relation MISS contains information
about missions in the Middle East, then John cannot access MISS
 Association-based Constraint: Ship’s location and mission taken
together cannot be accessed by John; individually each attribute can
be accessed by John
 Release constraint: After X is released Y cannot be accessed by
John
 Aggregate Constraints: Ten or more tuples taken together cannot be
accessed by John
 Dynamic Constraints: After the Mission, information about the
mission can be accessed by John
Enforcement of Security Policies/Constraints
User Interface Manager
Security
Constraints
Constraint
Manager
Query Processor:
Constraints during
query and release
operations
Update
Processor:
Database Design
Tool
Constraints during
database design
operation
Constraints
during
update
operation
Relational DBMS
Database
Other Developments in Access Control
 Inference Problem and Access Control
- Inference problem occurs when users pose queries and deduce
unauthorized information from the legitimate responses
- Security constraint processing for controlling inferences
- More recently there is work on controlling release information
instead of controlling access to information
 Temporal Access Control Models
- Incorporates time parameter into the access control models
 Role-based access control
- Controlling access based on roles of people and the activities
they carry out; Implemented in commercial systems
 Positive and Negative Authorizations
- Should negative authorizations be explicitly specified? How can
conflicts be resolved?
Some Examples
 Temporal Access Control
- After 1/1/05, only doctors have access to medical records
 Role-based Access Control
- Manager has access to salary information
- Project leader has access to project budgets, but he does not
have access to salary information
- What happens is the manager is also the project leader?
 Positive and Negative Authorizations
- John has write access to EMP
- John does not have read access to DEPT
- John does not have write access to Salary attribute in EMP
- How are conflicts resolved?
Access Control in Other Types of Databases
 Object Databases
- Controlling access to classes, object instances, instance
variables, method execution etc.
- E.g., MCC’s ORION model both for discretionary security and
mandatory security
 Distributed Databases
- Extend access control for relational databases to a distributed
environment across the nodes
 Federated Databases
- Integrate security policies exported by the component database
systems and form a federated policy
 Deductive Databases
- Logic for secure data and knowledge base systems – e.g., NTML
Non-monotonic Typed Multilevel Logic
Access Control in Databases: Current Trends
(1996 – Present)
 Data Warehousing
- Controlling access to aggregate information in the Warehouse
 Multimedia Database Systems
- Geospatial Information Systems
 Web Databases
- E-Commerce and Knowledge Management,
Collaboration/Workflow
 Semantic Web
- XML, RDF, Information Integration
 Dependable Databases
- Real-time/Embedded Database Systems
- Sensor/Stream Database Systems
Policies
 Need to Know to Need to Share
 RBAC
 UCON
 Dissemination
 Risk based access control
 Trust Management/Credential/Disclosure
 Directions
 Major conferences for Policy and Access Control:
- IEEE Policy Workshop
- ACM SACMAT
Need to Know to Need to Share
 Need to know policies during the cold war; even if the user has
access, does the user have a need to know?
 Pose 9/11 the emphasis is on need to share
- User may not have access, but needs the data

Do we give the data to the user and then analyze the
consequences

Do we analyze the consequences and then determine the
actions to take

Do we simply not give the data to the user

What are risks involved?
RBAC
 Access to information sources including structured and
unstructured data both within the organization and external to the
organization
 Access based on roles
 Hierarchy of roles: handling conflicts
 Controlled dissemination and sharing of the data
RBAC (Sandhu)
UCON
 RBAC model is incorporated into UCON and useful for
various applications
- Authorization component
 Obligations
Obligations are actions required to be performed before
an access is permitted
- Obligations can be used to determine whether an
expensive knowledge search is required
 Attribute Mutability
- Used to control the scope of the knowledge search
 Condition
- Can be used for resource usage policies to be relaxed or
tightened
-
UCON (Sandhu)
Dissemination Policies
 Release policies will determine to whom to release the data
- What is the connection to access control
- Is access control sufficient
- Once the data is retrieved from the information source (e.g.,
database) should it be released to the user
 Once the data is released, dissemination policies will determine who
the data can be given to
- Electronic music, etc.
Risk Based Data Sharing/Access Control
 What are the risks involved in releasing/disseminating the data
 Risk modeling should be integrated with the access control model
 Simple method: assign risk values
 Higher the risk, lower the sharing
 What is the cost of releasing the data?
 Cost/Risk/Security closely related
Trust Management
 Trust Services
- Identify services, authorization services, reputation
services
 Trust negotiation (TN)
Digital credentials, Disclosure policies
 TN Requirements
- Language requirements
 Semantics, constraints, policies
System requirements
 Credential ownership, validity, alternative negotiation
strategies, privacy
 Example TN systems
KeyNote and Trust-X (U of Milan), TrustBuilder (UIUC)
-
-
Trust Management
The problem: establishing trust in open
systems
 Interactions between strangers
- In conventional systems user identity is known in advance
and can be used for performing access control
- In open systems partecipants may have no pre-existing
relationship and may not share a common security domain

Mutual authentication
-
Assumption on the counterpart honesty no longer holds
Both participants need to authenticate each other
Trust Negotiation
model
 A promising approach for open systems where most of the interactions
occur between strangers
 The goal: establish trust between parties in order to exchange sensitive
information and services
 The approach: establish trust by verifying properties of the other party
Trust negotiation: the approach
Interactions between strangers in open systems
are different from traditional access control models
Policies and mechanisms developed in conventional
systems need to be revised
USER ID’s
VS.
SUBJECT PROPERTIES
ACCESS CONTROL
POLICIES
VS.
DISCLOSURE POLICIES
Subject properties: digital credentials
 Assertion about the credential owner issued and certified by a Certification
Authority.
 Each entity has an associated set of credentials,
describing properties and attributes of the owner.
CA
CA
CA
CA
Use of Credentials
Digital Credentials
Issuer
-Julie
-3 kids
Alice
-Married
Check
-American
-Julie
- American
Credential
Check
-Julie
- Married
Company B
Want to know marital status
Company A
Want to know citizenship
Referenced from http://www.credentica.com/technology/overview.pdf
Credentials
 Credentials can be expressed through the Security Assertion
Mark-up Language (SAML)
 SAML allows a party to express security statements about a
given subject
Authentication statements
- Attribute statements
- Authorization decision statements
-
Disclosure policies
 Disclosure policies govern:
Disclosure
policies
Access to protected resources
Access to sensitive information
Disclosure of sensitive credentials
 Disclosure policies express trust requirements by means of credential
combinations that must be disclosed to obtain authorization
Disclosure policies - Example
 Suppose NBG Bank offers loans to students
 To check the eligibility of the requester, the Bank asks the
student to present the following credentials
The student card
- The ID card
- Social Security Card
- Financial information – either a copy of the Federal Income Tax
-
Return or a bank statement
Disclosure policies - Example
p1= ({}, Student_Loan  Student_Card());
p2= ({p1}), Student_Loan  Social_Security_Card());
p3= ({p2}, Student_Loan  Federal_Income_Tax_Return());
p4= ({p2}, Student_Loan  Bank_Statement());
P5=({p3,p4}, Student_Loan  DELIV);
These policies result in two distinct “policy chains” that lead to disclosure
[p1, p2, p3, p5]
[p1, p2, p4, p5]
Directions
 Policies are of much interest to many organizations and
applications
- Financial, Medical, Retail, Manufacturing etc
 Roles and responsibilities
 Flexible policies
 RBAC, UCON, RBUC, Trust Negotiation, Dissemination
Policies
 Need to Know to Need to Share
 IEEE POLICY and ACM SACMAT