Access control and session management in the HTTP environment

As the only ubiquitous public data network, the Internet offers business partners a communications channel that previously existed only in unique situations with private, special-purpose networks. Well-publicized security risks, however, have limited the deployment of business-to-business extranets, which typically use the Internet's public data network infrastructure. These risks extend behind firewalls to intranets, where any user gaining entry to a facility is often implicitly authenticated to access unprotected services by simply plugging a portable computer into an unused network port. The author describes an approach that uses role-based access controls (RBACs) and Web session management to protect against network security breaches in the HTTP environment. The RBAC and session management services augment network-level security, such as firewalls, inherent in the deployment of any Web based system with untrusted interfaces. The RBACs are implemented through the Internet Engineering Task Force's Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). Session management is implemented through cryptographically secured, cookie-based ticket mechanisms.