Authentication in the Taos operating system

  • Authors:
  • Edward Wobber;Martín Abadi;Michael Burrows;Butler Lampson

  • Affiliations:
  • Digital Equipment Corp., Palo Alto, CA;Digital Equipment Corp., Palo Alto, CA;Digital Equipment Corp., Palo Alto, CA;Digital Equipment Corp., Palo Alto, CA

  • Venue:
  • ACM Transactions on Computer Systems (TOCS) - Special issue on operating systems principles
  • Year:
  • 1994

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Abstract

We describe a design for security in a distributed system and its implementation. In our design, applications gain access to security services through a narrow interface. This interface provides a notion of identity that includes simple principals, groups, roles, and delegations. A new operating system component manages principals, credentials, and secure channels. It checks credentials according to the formal rules of a logic of authentication. Our implementation is efficient enough to support a substantial user community.