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Version: 20 R5

Privileges

Protecting data while allowing fast and easy access to authorized users is a major challenge for web applications. The ORDA security architecture is implemented at the heart of your datastore and allows you to define specific privileges to all web or REST user sessions for the various resources in your project (datastore, dataclasses, functions, etc.).

Overview

The ORDA security architecture is based upon the concepts of privileges, permission actions (read, create, etc.), and resources.

When web users or REST users get logged, their session is automatically loaded with associated privilege(s). Privileges are assigned to the session using the session.setPrivileges() function.

Every user request sent within the session is evaluated against privileges defined in the project's roles.json file.

If a user attempts to execute an action and does not have the appropriate access rights, a privilege error is generated or, in the case of missing Read permission on attributes, they are not sent.

schema

Resources

You can assign specific permission actions to the following resources in your project:

  • the datastore
  • a dataclass
  • an attribute (including computed and alias)
  • a data model class function

Each time a resource is accessed within a session (whatever the way it is accessed), 4D checks that the session has the appropriate permissions, and rejects the access if it is not authorized.

A permission action defined at a given level is inherited by default at lower levels, but several permissions can be set:

  • A permission action defined at the datastore level is automatically assigned to all dataclasses.
  • A permission action defined at a dataclass level overrides the datastore setting (if any). By default, all attributes of the dataclass inherit from the dataclass permission(s).
  • Unlike dataclass permissions, a permission action defined at the attribute level does not override the parent dataclass permission(s), but is added to. For example, if you assigned the "general" privilege to a dataclass and the "detail" privilege to an attribute of the dataclass, both "general" and "detail" privileges must be set to the session to access the attribute.
info

Permissions control access to datastore objects. If you want to filter read data according to some criteria, you might consider restricting entity selections which can be more appropriate in this case.

Permission actions

Available actions are related to target resource.

Actionsdatastoredataclassattributedata model function
createCreate entity in any dataclassCreate entity in this dataclassCreate an entity with a value different from default value allowed for this attribute (ignored for alias attributes).n/a
readRead attributes in any dataclassRead attributes in this dataclassRead this attribute contentn/a
updateUpdate attributes in any dataclass.Update attributes in this dataclass.Update this attribute content (ignored for alias attributes).n/a
dropDelete data in any dataclass.Delete data in this dataclass.Delete a not null value for this attribute (except for alias and computed attribute).n/a
executeExecute any function on the project (datastore (except authentify(), see Notes below), dataclass, entity selection, entity)Execute any function on the dataclass. Dataclass functions, entity functions, and entity selection functions are handled as dataclass functionsn/aExecute this function
describeAll the dataclasses are available in the /rest/$catalog APIThis dataclass is available in the /rest/$catalog APIThis attribute is available in the /rest/$catalog API.This dataclass function is available in the /rest/$catalog API
promoten/an/an/aAssociates a given privilege during the execution of the function. The privilege is temporary added to the session and removed at the end of the function execution. By security, only the process executing the function is added the privilege, not the whole session.

Notes:

  • An alias can be read as soon as the session privileges allow the access to the alias itself, even if the session privileges do no allow the access to the attributes resolving the alias.
  • A computed attribute can be accessed even if there are no permissions on the attributes upon which it is built.
  • Default values: in the current implementation, only Null is available as default value.
  • In REST force login mode, the authentify() function is always executable by guest users, whatever the permissions configuration.

Setting permissions requires to be consistent, in particular:

  • update and drop permissions also need read permission (but create does not need it)
  • promote permission also need describe permission.

Privileges and Roles

A privilege is the technical ability to run actions on resources, while a role is a privilege pusblished to be used by an administrator. Basically, a role gathers several privileges to define a business user profile. For example, "manageInvoices" could be a privilege while "secretary" could be a role (which includes "manageInvoices" and other privileges).

A privilege or a role can be associated to several "action + resource" combinations. Several privileges can be associated to an action. A privilege can include other privileges.

  • You create privileges and/or roles in the roles.json file (see below). You configure their scope by assigning them to permission action(s) applied to resource(s).

  • You allow privileges and/or roles to every user session using the .setPrivileges() function of the Session class.

Example

To allow a role in a session:


exposed Function authenticate($identifier : Text; $password : Text)->$result : Text

var $user : cs.UsersEntity

Session.clearPrivileges()

$result:="Your are authenticated as Guest"

$user:=ds.Users.query("identifier = :1"; $identifier).first()

If ($user#Null)
If (Verify password hash($password; $user.password))
Session.setPrivileges(New object("roles"; $user.role))
$result:="Your are authenticated as "+$user.role
End if
End if


roles.json file

The roles.json file describes the whole security settings for the project.

note

In a context other than Qodly (cloud), you have to create this file at the following location: <project folder>/Project/Sources/. See Architecture section.

The roles.json file syntax is the following:

Property nameTypeMandatoryDescription
privilegesCollection of privilege objectsXList of defined privileges
[].privilegeStringPrivilege name
[].includesCollection of stringsList of included privilege names
rolesCollection of role objectsList of defined roles
[].roleStringRole name
[].privilegesCollection of stringsList of included privilege names
permissionsObjectXList of allowed actions
allowedCollection of permission objectsList of allowed permissions
[].applyToStringXTargeted resource name
[].typeStringXResource type: "datastore", "dataclass", "attribute", "method"
[].readCollection of stringsList of privileges
[].createCollection of stringsList of privileges
[].updateCollection of stringsList of privileges
[].dropCollection of stringsList of privileges
[].describeCollection of stringsList of privileges
[].executeCollection of stringsList of privileges
[].promoteCollection of stringsList of privileges
forceLoginBooleanTrue to enable the "forceLogin" mode
Reminder
  • The "WebAdmin" privilege name is reserved to the application. It is not recommended to use this name for custom privileges.
  • privileges and roles names are case insensitive.

Roles_Errors.json file

The roles.json file is parsed by 4D at startup. You need to restart the application if you want modifications in this file to be taken into account.

In case of error(s) when parsing the roles.json file, 4D loads the project but disables the global access protection - this allows the developer to access the files and to fix the error. An error file named Roles_Errors.json is generated in the Logs folder of the project and describes the error line(s). This file is automatically deleted when the roles.json file no longer contains error(s).

It is recommended to check at startup if a Roles_Errors.json file exists in the Logs folder, which means that there was a parsing error and that accesses will not limited. You can write for example:

/Sources/DatabaseMethods/onStartup.4dm
If (Not(File("/LOGS/"+"Roles_Errors.json").exists))

Else // you can prevent the project to open
ALERT("The roles.json file is malformed or contains inconsistencies, the application will quit.")
QUIT 4D
End if

Initializing privileges for deployment

By default, if no specific parameters are defined in the roles.json file, accesses are not limited. This configuration allows you to develop the application without having to worry about accesses.

However, when the application is about to be deployed, a good practice is to lock all privileges and then, to configure the file to only open controlled parts to authorized sessions. To lock all privileges on all resources, put the following roles.json file in your project folder (it includes examples of methods):

/Project/Sources/roles.json
{
"privileges": [
{
"privilege": "none",
"includes": []
}
],

"roles": [],

"permissions": {
"allowed": [{
"applyTo": "ds",
"type": "datastore",
"read": [
"none"
],
"create": [
"none"
],
"update": [
"none"
],
"drop": [
"none"
],
"execute": [
"none"
],
"describe": [
"none"
],
"promote": [
"none"
]
},
{
"applyTo": "ds.loginAs",
"type": "method",
"execute": [
"guest"
]
},
{
"applyTo": "ds.hasPrivilege",
"type": "method",
"execute": [
"guest"
]
},
{
"applyTo": "ds.clearPrivileges",
"type": "method",
"execute": [
"guest"
]
},
{
"applyTo": "ds.isGuest",
"type": "method",
"execute": [
"guest"
]
},
{
"applyTo": "ds.getPrivileges",
"type": "method",
"execute": [
"guest"
]
},
{
"applyTo": "ds.setAllPrivileges",
"type": "method",
"execute": [
"guest"
]
}

]
}
}