Privilege Management : The Default Implementation

General Notes

As of Oak the built-in and custom privileges are stored in the repository underneath /jcr:system/rep:privileges. Similar to other repository level date (node types, namespaces and versions) this location is shared by all workspaces present in the repository. The nodes and properties storing the privilege definitions are protected by their node type definition and cannot be modified using regular JCR write methods. In addition a specific Validator and CommitHook implementations assert the consistency of the privilege store. The built-in privileges are installed using a dedicated implementation of the RepositoryInitializer.

Differences wrt Jackrabbit 2.x

A comprehensive list of changes compared to Jackrabbit 2.x can be found in the corresponding documentation.

Built-in Privileges

• All Privileges as defined by JSR 283

    jcr:read (NOTE: Aggregate since Oak 1.0)
    jcr:modifyProperties (NOTE: Aggregate since Oak 1.0)
    jcr:addChildNodes
    jcr:removeNode
    jcr:removeChildNodes
    jcr:readAccessControl
    jcr:modifyAccessControl
    jcr:lockManagement
    jcr:versionManagement
    jcr:nodeTypeManagement
    jcr:retentionManagement (NOTE: retention management not implemented in Oak 1.0)
    jcr:lifecycleManagement (NOTE: lifecycle management not implemented in Oak 1.0)
    jcr:write
    jcr:all
  

• All Privileges defined by JSR 333

    jcr:workspaceManagement (NOTE: wsp management not yet implemented)
    jcr:nodeTypeDefinitionManagement
    jcr:namespaceManagement
  

• All Privileges defined by Jackrabbit 2.x

    rep:write
    rep:privilegeManagement
  

• New Privileges defined by OAK 1.0:

    rep:userManagement
    rep:readNodes
    rep:readProperties
    rep:addProperties
    rep:alterProperties
    rep:removeProperties
    rep:indexDefinitionManagement
  

Please note the following differences with respect to Jackrabbit 2.x definitions:

• jcr:read is now an aggregation of rep:readNodes and rep:readProperties
• jcr:modifyProperties is now an aggregation of rep:addProperties, rep:alterProperties and rep:removeProperties

New Privileges

The new Privileges introduced with Oak 1.0 have the following effect:

• rep:userManagement: Privilege required in order to write items that define user or group specific content.
• rep:readNodes: Privilege used to allow/deny read access to nodes (aggregate of jcr:read)
• rep:readProperties: Privilege used to allow/deny read access to properties (aggregate of jcr:read)
• rep:addProperties: Privilege required in order to create new properties (aggreate of jcr:modifyProperties)
• rep:alterProperties: Privilege required in order to change existing properties (aggreate of jcr:modifyProperties)
• rep:removeProperties: Privilege required in order to remove existing properties (aggreate of jcr:modifyProperties)
• rep:indexDefinitionManagement: Privilege required to create, modify or deleate index definitions.

Mapping Privileges to Items and API Calls

An overview on how the built-in privileges map to API calls and individual items can be found in ‘Mapping Privileges to Items’ and ‘Mapping API Calls to Privileges’

As of Oak 1.0 all privilege definitions are stored in the repository itself underneath /jcr:system/rep:privileges. The following privilege related built-in node types have been added in OAK 1.0 in order to represent built-in and custom privilege definitions.

[rep:Privileges]
  + * (rep:Privilege) = rep:Privilege protected ABORT
  - rep:next (LONG) protected multiple mandatory

[rep:Privilege]
  - rep:isAbstract (BOOLEAN) protected
  - rep:aggregates (NAME) protected multiple
  - rep:bits (LONG) protected multiple mandatory

Note the protection status of all child items defined by these node type definitions as they prevent modification of the privilege definitions using regular JCR write operations.

The consistency of this content structure is asserted by a dedicated PrivilegeValidator. The corresponding errors are all of type Constraint with the following codes:

Code	Message
0041	Modification of existing privilege definition X
0042	Un-register privilege X
0043	Next bits not updated
0044	Privilege store not initialized
0045	Modification of existing privilege definition X
0046	Modification of existing privilege definition X
0047	Invalid declared aggregate name X
0048	PrivilegeBits are missing
0049	PrivilegeBits already in used
0050	Singular aggregation is equivalent to existing privilege.
0051	Declared aggregate X is not a registered privilege
0052	Detected circular aggregation
0053	Custom aggregate privilege X is already covered.

There are no implementation specific configuration options associated with the privilege management implementation.