Grouped access control list actions

Abstract

Access Control Lists (ACLs) are used to describe the permitted actions (permissions) on protected network computer system resources or objects associated with an client or user identity. An identity may be an individual user or group of users. The actions are used to represent the different access methods available on a particular projected object or resource. A new action grouping mechanism is provided which tags each action with an action group name. The grouping of actions facilitates a larger permission set to be defined in an ACL, whereas action permission indicators can be reused for unique action definitions within various action groups. This effectively extends the finite total number of permissions available within a security system, allows a more descriptive and extensible permission mechanism in an Access Control List, as well as aiding in the simplification of management and definition of security policies.