Portals Security

The Portal Security Pattern consists of the following components:

User Authentication: allows the user to login into the portal.
SSO Management: allows the user to provide all information needed for SSO, such as usernames and passwords for external services (e.g. Myproxy)
Authorisation: allows the user to change permissions for users in Access Control List or permissions for roles and users/roles assignment in case of Role Based Access Control (RBAC).

To perform any operation on the Grid portal the user has to authenticate him/herself. The entry point is always User Authentication component. Although it is possible to use the portal with a Guest User role, in this case only overall information is presented to the user and there is no access to components requiring another security level or available only to registered users.

After user successful login, it is possible for the user to proceed to other security components. The SSO Management Component allows the user to provide the necessary information to gain access to the resources of multiple software systems via Single Sign On. The information, once filled, is used in all SSO authentication operations. SSO management can be used with different SSO oriented services.

The Authorization component is used to change permissions to access objects in the portal and the Grid. This component can be used together with the portals internal authorization components (e.g. using simple RBAC) or an external service offering more sophisticated and higher detail level solution.