GGF Authorization Frameworks and Mechanisms Working Group

GGF7 Meeting 1, Wed Mar 5 2003 12:00-13:30

Comet room, Hotel Intercontinental Keio Plaza, Tokyo
http://java.cs.vt.edu/public/users/mlorch/Grid-AuthZ/Home

Slides are available at:
http://zuni.cs.vt.edu/grid-authz/ggf7-2003-03-05-v3.pdf
http://zuni.cs.vt.edu/grid-authz/ggf7-2003-03-05-authzreq-doc.pdf

Agenda:

1. Introduction and overview of WG charter, scope + documents (15 min)
2. Review of timeline, milestones and goals (15 min)
3. Discussion of outline + content of requirements summary document (45 min)
4. Discussion of outline + content of glossary document document (15 min)

Minutes (by Jim Basney and Dane Skow):

Markus reviewed the GGF Intellectual Property Notice
.

Markus reviewed the agenda.

Dan Skow volunteered to take minutes.

Markus reviewed the WG charter.

Goal is the conceptual framework with terms for all expected actors,
components and decision points.

Looking to make 3 documents:
a) Glossary
b) Summary document of authorization requirements
c) the conceptual framework document.

c) is the major document. Draft is submitted to the GGF7 drafts
area.

Markus reviewed current status of the WG:
- 28 people on mailing list
- phone conferences held over last 3 weeks; minutes on web page

Online drafts can be edited directly by anyone on the working
group. We are not being formal about change tracking, though
people should summarize their changes to the mailing list, please.

Andrew presented plans for the requirements summary document:
Inputs: Site AAA RG, ACE security, OGSA security, EU DataGrid Security
Design, and others. Input from meeting attendees was solicited.
Outputs: Collect pointers to descriptions of requirements and
summarize. Will not put all requirements into one framework
(checklist table).
Comment: Target documents may have different definitions of
authorization. Summary in this document will address which
components of the target document apply.
Request for volunteers of requirements.
Questions/comments?
Request for editor for this document.
Matt Crawford is willing to be the editor if noone else steps forward.

People are requested to submit pointers to requirement documents
of which they are aware. This req document will be
references to others whereever possible, but is looking to
act as an index and top level summary, but not a replication
of other work.

Will not be a comprehensive checklist of all known requirements.
The framework may have some of that character, but even then, the
focus will be on the framework and how various requirements might
be addressed, but again, just the frameworks, not the requirements
themselves.

Concern raised that this document should provide some "vetting"
of the referred document and not just a list of URLs. Concern that
there may be some mistakes or conflicting definitions that need to
be resolved.

Cees polled the room to see who is on the mailing list for this group
and said he'd like to see more involvement.

Markus reviewed the working group home page.

Question: What is difference between author and editor?
Editor pushes the document forward and brings the contributed pieces together.

Markus gave an overview of the framework document.

Major goal is for the framework document to establish the
categorization criteria and interoperability points/limits
for various authorization methods. There may or may not be
recommendations about which method is most appropriate to
different use cases.

Aim: Introduce/define authorization models, define a conceptual grid
authz framework as a basis for design, and categorize existing
authz modules and systems.
Outline:
1. Authz Framework concepts (entities, sequences/models)
2. Framework components
3. Existing authz mechanisms, modules, components, APIs
Terms in current framework document draft:
1. Authorization Authority (AA) + AAH
2. Authorization Subject (AS) + ASH
3. Service Owner (SO) + SOH
Comment: We should use IETF or ISO terms if possible.
Will be effort to get the ISO documents to see whether or
not the terminology can be reconciled with the IETF. A link
to obtaining the ISO documents was sent to the mailing list last
night. Claim was made that there is no barrier to sharing the
ISO documents, and we are encouraged to refer to them.
Comment: We don't want to clash in meaning with IETF or ISO terms.
Sequences/Models:
1. Push: ASH gets authz from AAH and pushes it to SOH
2. Pull: ASH requests service from SOH, and SOH pulls authz from AAH
3. Agent: ASH sends request to AAH, and AAH bundles authz with
request and sends to SOH
Comment: May have an authz repository where authorizations are stored
or cached so you don't always need to talk to AAH. For example, in
pull sequence, SOH could have cached authz. AAH could issue authz
into repository out-of-band, separate from being used. The sequence
may not be completed all at the same time. They could be separated
in time.
Comment: Sequences/models can be combined.
Alternative terms for the framework:
Authorization Authority:
Source of Authority (SOA) - X509, DNS
Attribute Authority (subordinate to SOA)
Stakeholder
Authorization Subject:
Initiator
Service Owner:
Target
Access Control Info, Authorization Info, AuthZ Tokens, AuthZ Policy
Comment: Acronyms can be difficult to read, i.e., SOA vs. Stakeholder.
Comment: Stakeholder is more broad in general usage. Authorized users
have a stake in it.
Comment: Authorizor, authorizer?
Comment: We should have a good reason for not using IETF terms. For
example, User Home Organization (problematic). Different IETF
groups use different terms. ADF, AEF.
Comment: Authorization Source and Authorization Subject? Then refer
to Source and Subject in the text.
Comment: What does Authorization Source mean when you consider delegation?
Comment: Why is ISO model as is not acceptable? Can we use the IETF
or ISO terms?
Leon: IETF terms are focused on networked environment. Want to step
away from those terms to be more general.
Comment: Could use X509 terms. In general is a bad idea to create a
new set of terms.
David Chadwick will provide a summary of the ISO terms on the mailing
list to be discussed tomorrow.

Since there was some time left in the session, Markus and Krishna
reviewed the framework document outline and asked for comments.
Comment: PEP and PDP should be included in the framework. Also where
does policy fit? The framework needs to be richer with more compoments.

Meeting adjourned.


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