org.apache.river.api.security

Interface SubjectDomain

public interface SubjectDomain

A Marker interface used by net.jini.security.Security to mark a ProtectionDomain added to the stack that represents an authenticated Subject with Principal's.

Typically in non-distributed systems, a Subject is represented by a Thread and all Permission granted to that Subject is injected into every ProtectionDomain present on the call stack. Code is always trusted, or at least it must be at the time the Subject is authenticated.

However in a distributed system, because code trust and Subject's are separate concerns, methods have been provided in net.jini.security.Security to push a SubjectDomain onto the stack instead of injecting Principal's into all ProtectionDomain's on the stack, this avoids mistakenly elevating privileges of less trusted code, if present on a call stack at the time the doAs subject method is called.

When using these methods, the security Policy needs to be written to grant Permission to code signer certificates and Principals separately.

For example, a RemotePolicy service is updated by an Administrator client using PermissionGrant's, however one of these grants is not signed by a trusted Certificate. Ordinarily this PermissionGrant would run with the privileges of the administrator, but because code trust and user trust should be considered separate concerns in a distributed system, the administrator is unable to make these PermissionGrant's in the presence of untrusted code.

These methods apply the principle of least privilege to Subject's as well as code. The privileges allowed will be the intersection of Permission granted to each ProtectionDomain on the call stack.

These methods require a River or Jini Policy provider to be installed. The SubjectDomain is a dynamic ProtectionDomain, it contains no Permission, it always consults the current Policy.
see net.jini.security.Security#doAs(javax.security.auth.Subject, java.security.PrivilegedAction)
see net.jini.security.Security#doAs(javax.security.auth.Subject, java.security.PrivilegedExceptionAction)
see net.jini.security.Security#doAsPrivileged(javax.security.auth.Subject, java.security.PrivilegedAction, net.jini.security.SecurityContext)
see net.jini.security.Security#doAsPrivileged(javax.security.auth.Subject, java.security.PrivilegedExceptionAction, net.jini.security.SecurityContext)

Since:

3.0.0

Author:

Peter Firmstone

See Also:

DynamicPolicyProvider, ConcurrentPolicyFile

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
Subject	getSubject()

Method Detail

getSubject

Subject getSubject()