A scheme and concept for limited inheritance of privileges in a user hierarchy

User hierarchy is a critical issue in the access control policy for information protection systems. The conventional user hierarchy structure utilized over the past decades is discussed. Within this user hierarchy structure, a user is permitted to access all of the files of other users who are below him in the user hierarchy. However, this relationship is not suitable for the following situation; users desire to keep some permissions of files private to themselves and free from access from superior users. In this paper, we shall propose a new user privilege hierarchy to represent the relationship of limited inheritance. Furthermore, we also provide an effective and dynamic method that can procure the relationships and the inheritable privileges among users in the user privilege hierarchy. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved

A Scheme and Concept for Limited Inheritance of Privileges in a User Hierarchy

[[abstract]]User hierarchy is a critical issue in the access control policy for information protection systems. The conventional user hierarchy structure utilized over the past decades is discussed. Within this user hierarchy structure, a user is permitted to access all of the files of other users who are below him in the user hierarchy. However, this relationship is not suitable for the following situation; users desire to keep some permissions of files private to themselves and free from access from superior users. In this paper, we shall propose a new user privilege hierarchy to represent the relationship of limited inheritance. Furthermore, we also provide an effective and dynamic method that can procure the relationships and the inheritable privileges among users in the user privilege hierarchy