IVOA Grid & Web Services: Security

Contents

Overview

Though our data may have zero commercial value (according to Jim Gray), we are still concerned about who can access them and ensuring that they and the services that we provide are not exploited for nefarious purposes. However, users don't care about protocols and standards - they care about better experience with enhanced privacy and security. We require simple to use, robust, and scalable solutions to the issues of authentication (who am I), authorization (what can I do) and delegation (how do I allow someone else to do something on my behalf) that work with all kinds of services and applications that the VO offers.

• Authentication
• Authorization
• Credential Delegation

The ability to control who has access to resources and what operations are permitted is a common task across the IVOA.

Prototype work on using HTTP headers to convey authentication: SSO_next

Specification

• Access Control Interface v0.1