Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Maana, Inc.

Jason Forrest Mackay

Moritz Y Becker

Blair Brewster Dillaway

Alina Mihaela Stoica-Beck

Gregory Darrell Fee

Andrew Donald Gordon

Cedric Fournet

Ralph Donald Thompson, Iii

John Michael Leen

Tolga Acar

Thomas Michael Roeder

Tara Sanathanan Prakriya

Robert Povey

Jason Hogg

Ryan Kirk

Alexander Hussam Elkholy

Brian LaMachia

Field Nicholas Cady

Mira Belinkiy

Embodiments are directed towards managing data. Attributes of model fields of a plurality of model objects may be analyzed. If the analysis of the attributes discovers primary key fields in the model objects, the characteristics of the primary keys may be compared with the characteristics of other model objects. If affirmative results of the comparison indicate that one or more foreign key fields may be in the other model objects, one or more relationships that associate the primary key fields with the foreign key fields may be provided. And, a system model may be provided based on the relationships and the model objects that include the primary key fields and the model objects that include the foreign key fields.

Machine-assisted key discovery and join generation

Embodiments are directed towards managing data using modeling platform. A principal data set and match data set may be provided. The principal data set may include principal objects and the match data set may include other model objects. Blocking may associate each of the plurality of principal objects with potential match objects. Principal objects from the plurality of principal objects may be selected based on heuristics, their associated potential match objects, or the like. Potential match objects may be labeled as a true match or a non-match with respect to their associated principal object. A ranker may be trained to identify top-ranked matches based on the labeled potential match objects. The trained ranker may be employed to indicate matches where each matching other model object is a potential match object that is ranked higher than other potential match objects that are associated with its matched principal object.

Machine-assisted object matching

Embodiments are directed towards managing data. An attributes engine may be employed to perform various actions, including: analyzing characteristics of model object features of a plurality of model objects; classifying the model object features based on the characteristics, such that the characteristics include a data type and values of the model object features; and associating similarity tasks with the model object features based on their classification. A similarity engine may then be employed to perform further actions, including: providing a similarity model that includes the similarity tasks; employing the similarity model to provide candidate similarity scores based on exemplar model objects labeled as being similar; modifying the similarity model based on the exemplar model objects and the candidate similarity scores; employing the modified similarity model to provide similarity scores for model objects based on the one or more similarity tasks.

Machine-assisted exemplar based similarity discovery

Security language constructs may be translated into logic language constructs and vice versa. Logic resolution may be effected using, for example, the logic language constructs. In an example implementation, translation of a security language assertion into at least one logic language rule is described. In another example implementation, translation of a proof graph reflecting a logic language into a proof graph reflecting a security language is described. In yet another example implementation, evaluation of a logic language program using a deterministic algorithm is described.

Security language translations with logic resolution

Techniques to allow a security policy language to accommodate anonymous credentials are described. A policy statement in a security policy language can reference an anonymous credential. When the policy statement is evaluated to decide whether to grant access to a resource mediated by the policy statement, the anonymous credential is used. The policy language can be implemented to allow one anonymous credential to delegate access-granting rights to another anonymous credential. Furthermore, an anonymous credential can be re-randomized to avoid linkage between uses of the anonymous credential, which can compromise anonymity.

Anonymous principals for policy languages

Software tools assist an access-policy analyst or creator to debug and/or author access policies. An access request contains a query that evaluates to either true or false depending on whether access is to be allowed. Abduction may be used to generate assumptions that, if true, would cause the access request to be true. The tool may perform analysis on the generated assumptions, such as: comparing the assumptions with tokens to detect errors in the tokens or to suggest changes to the tokens that would cause the query to be satisfied, or comparing the assumptions to a meta-policy. The tool may allow an analysis, policy author, or other person to interactively walk through assumptions in order to see the implications of the access policy.

Access policy analysis

Security language constructs may be translated into logic language constructs and vise versa. Logic resolution may be effected using, for example, the logic language constructs. In an example implementation, translation of a security language assertion into at least one logic language rule is described. In another example implementation, translation of a proof graph reflecting a logic language into a proof graph reflecting a security language is described. In yet another example implementation, evaluation of a logic language program using a deterministic algorithm is described.

Access to a resource may be controlled by a policy, such that a request to access the resource is either granted or denied based on what assertions have been made by various principals. To find the assertions that support a grant of access to the resource, a template may be created that defines the nature of assertions that would cause access to succeed. Assertions may be stored in the form of tokens. The template may be used to search an existing token store to find assertions that have been made, and/or to generate assertions that have not been found in the token store and that would satisfy the template. The assertions in the template may be created by performing an abductive reasoning process on an access query.

Delegation in logic-based access control

Architecture that employs dynamic assertion providers in logic-based security policy languages. The dynamic assertion providers provide a mechanism by which data can be processed in an efficient, goal-directed manner. The application of dynamic assertion providers enables the inferencing over type hierarchies, including hierarchies of personally identifiable information and also for file systems which are hierarchal in nature. When searching for facts to bind against for a given subgoal, dynamic assertion providers are also queried. These objects follow an interface which can implement an arbitrary method to provide facts to the logic engine in a goal-directed, on-demand manner. Hierarchical types can be implemented using a hierarchy provider.

Dynamic assertion providers for logic-based security policy languages

Logical abduction is used to derive the premises that support an access query. In a logic-based access-control system, a query, as to one or more principals' right to access one or more resources, is a statement that can be either true or false. The statement evaluates to true if the principal is allowed to access the resource under the existing set of assertions. Assertions that, if made, would cause the statement to be true can be abduced from the query and from the policy against which the truth of the query is to be judged. The abduced assertions can be used to assist in making the appropriate assertions to cause the query to evaluate to true so that access to the resource can be granted.

Abducing assertion to support access query

Embodiments of the present invention provide the ability for a software provider to distribute software updates to several different recipients utilizing a peer-to-peer environment. The invention described herein may be used to update any type of software, including, but not limited to, operating software, programming software, anti-virus software, database software, etc. The use of a peer-to-peer environment with added security provides the ability to minimize download time for each peer and also reduce the amount of egress bandwidth that must be provided by the software provider to enable recipients (peers) to obtain the update.

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Sammamish, WA, United States of America

Jason Forrest Mackay