wiki:BluePrintAuthorizationB

Version 12 (modified by Dominic König, 14 years ago) ( diff )

--

BluePrint for Authorization (alternative version)

General model

Authorizable Methods

Authorization is implemented for the following methods:

  • module access (execute, all controllers of the module)
  • controller access (execute)
  • table access (create/read/update/delete and custom method)
  • record access (create/read/update/delete and custom method)

Basic Policy

Authorization policy is implemented as:

  • if a method is not restricted, then it is accessible for everyone
  • if a method is restricted, then permission must be explicitly granted, otherwise it is denied (Allow=>Deny order)

Roles

Permissions are assigned to roles (not to individual users):

  • roles are stored in auth_group
  • admin role is auth_group 1 (cannot be modified)
  • membership in the admin role overrides any restrictions everywhere
  • roles are assigned to users by auth_membership
    • this can happen either through admin UI or implicitly (no admin interaction)
    • it must be possible to log this
  • additional roles can be created after deployment
    • this will usually happen implicitly, i.e. not through admin UI
    • does not require a generic UI solution
  • roles of the actual user are re-read from the DB and stored in the session once per HTTP request
    • caching of this re-reading needs a proper method for cache invalidation on update notification
    • do not implement caching unless it really makes us performance problems

There are two pseudo-roles for record access:

  • author (=the author of the record)
  • editor (=the last author of the record)

Functions

Denial of access

shn_unauthorized(msg="You're not allowed to access this module")
  • shn_unauthorized() realizes error notification and redirection as appropriate
  • non-interactive modes:
    • raise a HTTP error and a JSON error message
    • MUST NOT REDIRECT!
  • interactive modes, one of:
    • redirect (e.g. to login) and and display an error message on the target page (acceptable)
    • raise a HTTP error and display an error page, provide redirection options from the error page (more RESTful)
  • the msg argument is optional

Module/Controller Access

if shn_has_role("Facility Admin"):
    ...
  • shn_has_role() refers to the current user
  • returns always True for sysadmins (auth_group 1)
  • shn_has_role() tests can be combined by and, or and not

Table/Record Access

  • table/record access can be restricted by:
    • shn_permit(table, method, role, id=None) adds role to the list of permitted roles for method on table/record
    • shn_deny(table, method, role, id=None) removes role from the list of permitted roles for method on table/record
    • shn_restrict(table, method, role, id=None) replaces the list of permitted roles for method on table/record with [role]
  • table/record access permission is tested by:
    • shn_permitted(table, method, id=None), which returns True/False refering to the current user
  • record restrictions override table permissions
  • table restrictions override record permissions

BluePrints

Note: See TracWiki for help on using the wiki.