A Model of Methods Access Authorization in Object-oriented Databases

Object-oriented databases are a recent and important development and many studies of them have been performed. These consider aspects such as data modeling, query languages, performance, and concurrency control. Relatively few studies address their security, a critical aspect in systems like these that have a complex and rich data structuring. We developed previously a model of authorization for object-oriented databases which includes a set of policies, a structure for authorization rules and their administration, and evaluation algorithms. In that model the high-level query requests were resolved into read and writes at the authorization level. In this pa per we extend the set of access primitives to include ways to control the execution of methods or functions. Policy issues are discussed first, and then algorithms for access evaluation at compile-time and at run-time.