Oxford University e-Science Centre 1 Managing Access 4 Dec Managing Access to Resources on the Grid 4 December 2002

Oxford University e-Science Centre 2 Managing Access 4 Dec Aims of the Workshop To bring together:- –Those building Grid environments –Those in University IT community with responsible for managing access to computing resources Reviewing methods of :- –authentication (am) e-Science programme Three JISC funded projects –authorisation (pm) 3 systems offering authorisation A working process for mapping Grid users into local accounts (EDG) User registration for Grid resources

Oxford University e-Science Centre 3 Managing Access 4 Dec Authentication – e-Science Costs institution about £1000 to create RA Current cost about £200 (£20) per certificate to the CA (RA) Current capacity c certificates (194 certificates so far) –Issuing 60 certificates/month Renaissance Worldwide, “Choosing a PKI Vendor” –$ /certificate assuming 1000/year Certificates must be renewed annually Certificate must be cared for like a passport Looking for approval of EDG CA and Grid CAs outside Europe Will update CP/CPS (contract) “This is a frighteningly high cost to protect computers”

Oxford University e-Science Centre 4 Managing Access 4 Dec Authentication – JISC Projects… Digital Certificate Operation in a Complex Environment (M Dovey) –To provide a detailed evaluation and implementation of digital certificates at Univ of Oxford –How do we expand RA for e-Science to general RA for University? –Will explore development beyond project –Why not just username and password? Open Source Certificate Authority (E Carter, D Holdsworth) –Automated registration authority User account generation/certificate issue –Online, scalable –Revocation is done best at authorisation

Oxford University e-Science Centre 5 Managing Access 4 Dec … continued Technologies for Information Environment Security (A Ferguson/S Shaw) –Proof of concept for an authentication service for licensed resources (assets) of the JISC IE Accessed by standard browsers –Consider the wider use of digital certificates in HE –Is a two-tier policy required for institutions? Basic level assurance for JISC IE Higher level of additional services

Oxford University e-Science Centre 6 Managing Access 4 Dec Am Authentication Discussion 1.Strong view from floor that ‘going over top’ for general authentication use in CP/CPS (at least 50%) CP/CPS requires that user identifies himself/herself –Institutions will wish to use existing registration to identify as already personal identification process happened and combine CA –Otherwise not scalable Context is very important –If wish to inter-work with abroad, then need to meet their requirements Why not just use username and password? –There is now trend for server to define format of password –Exposing different requirements – certificates are needed for Grid Principal drivers for certificates are Grid, medical schools (complexity of trust models) and high assurance Government services –So we will have to learn to use certificates in higher numbers

Oxford University e-Science Centre 7 Managing Access 4 Dec EDG Account Management Within the lifecycle of a job, each step requires authorisation How can Grid users gain access without creating new accounts every day, be limited, audited, and their files be tracked Local access control and account management.. EDG has LDAP VO Mkgridmap tool builds local grid-mapfile from VO server each day –Grid-mapfile: users which can use resource Process: –Users first join Acceptable Use Policy VO (using Certificate) –  Users can then join the VO of their application VOMS – Similar to CAS, but retains user identity (like VO or sub- group membership) –No longer need to fetch membership, as VO members will be accepted as they have right GGF Authorization Working Group (Authz) –Converge authorisation solutions and move from Grid to web services

Oxford University e-Science Centre 8 Managing Access 4 Dec CAS GSI – X.509 –Certificate on base machine, then create proxy with further information attached –Current policy is GridMap file; but not scalable –CAS addresses this; CAS produces a proxy when a user is authorised –CAS investigation being reviewed using JISC funding CAS enabled gatekeeper –Policy Enforcement Point encapsulated into certificate Virtual Organisation Management Portal (VOM) –Certificate used on portal browser to join VO, then can proceed through VO manager to have request approved and then move to resource manager

Oxford University e-Science Centre 9 Managing Access 4 Dec Akenti (Complex) Access Management system from LBL –Assumes PKI –Allows each stakeholder to define access Authentication: X.509 Authorisation: Three types of signed certificates (not X.509) –Policy: one per resource –User attribute –Resource use-condition: supplied by stakeholders These then make the access control decision Interfaced to Globus, and in web context – Apache model Possible reservation: its own ‘certificates’ are not standards- based

Oxford University e-Science Centre 10 Managing Access 4 Dec PERMIS Policy based authorisation system –Similar to XACML but simpler –Can push or pull –Not AAA, simply policy based authorisation used XML –The target/resource is the root of trust

Oxford University e-Science Centre 11 Managing Access 4 Dec Pm Authorisation Discussion Any primary authorisation server/policy engine will attract hackers How would system managers react to deploying the EDG Account Management? –Group accounts are potentially worrying –File system approach is Linux specific (open AFS coming) How close are VOM and VOMS? –Very similar apart from backend Revocation should be achieved through Authorisation –Possibly need different levels of priority At a sufficiently early stage not to know details in order to give feedback to developers Need quick feedback from projects to see how they would, or not help

Oxford University e-Science Centre 12 Managing Access 4 Dec Common Acceptable Use Conditions Can we have a single set of regulations for all institutions? –Answer no The UCISA statement is a good start for a “Grid CAU” Or EDG or AKENTI statements –Need a superset of conditions but with some irrelevant parts removed –There will need to agreement that it will be enforced by the home institution when a user misbehaves –Then circulate the draft text When will the ‘Grid regulations’ be “signed”? –At the time of registration through the RA? How do we make this international?