System and method for role based analysis and access control

Abstract

A system and method for program access control includes, for a typestate, providing typestate properties and assigning a role to the typestate in a program in accordance with the typestate properties. Access to operations is limited for the typestate in the program based on the role assigned to the typestate and an access permission level.

1 . A method for analyzing role consistency for program access control, comprising:
 computing with a processor, for each object in a program having a plurality of objects, a set of methods that directly access an object;   checking a role assignment for the object by determining if the object's role is a least upper bound of the roles assigned to the methods of the set; and   permitting access to the set of methods if an accessor's role is at least equal to the least upper bound of the roles assigned to the methods that access the object.   
     
     
         2 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein computing includes generating a pointer graph of the program. 
     
     
         3 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , wherein pointer graph includes a method-annotated pointer graph. 
     
     
         4 . A computer program product comprising a computer useable storage medium having a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to:
 compute with a processor, for each object in a program having a plurality of objects, a set of methods that directly access an object;   check a role assignment for the object by determining if the object's role is a least upper bound of the roles assigned to the methods of the set; and   permit access to the set of methods if an accessor's role is at least equal to the least upper bound of the roles assigned to the methods that access the object.