Current Status

We have created a Contributor Project around this problem area. For up to date information on this work, go to the Improved Fedora Security Layer (FSL) project page.

Required Features for first release

Vocabulary

• Simple, intuitive, well documented vocabulary for controlling Read, Create, Edit and Delete for Collections, Objects, and Datastreams
• Assign permissions by User or by Group, regardless of where user attributes are coming from (ie. LDAP, Shibboleth, OpenId, CAS, etc.)
• One vocabulary covers all equivalent methods in SOAP and REST APIs (ie. policies decide at a higher level who can edit a datastream, rather than saying who can call the modifyDatastream SOAP method)

Authentication (AuthN)

• Support surrogate authentication and document how to do it
• Support LDAP and Tomcat-Users
• Use servlet filters to enforce access controls on all inbound requests

Policy Manager / Authorization (AuthZ)

• Allow repository managers to find out what policies apply to a given Object, Datastream, or Collection
• Enforce policies at Datastream, Object and Collection level. (Rely on either RELS-EXT or Fedora's bundled RIsearch for evaluating collection memberships.)

General

• Keep the implementation stable & current
• Bundle solution with Fedora and include it in the installer
• Audit the Implementation for potential security flaws
• Support community innovation & allow people to completely replace the whole thing if they wish

Desirable Features (not required for first release)

• Support Shibboleth
• Support OpenID & OpenAuth
• Support Single Sign-on (SSO) - must be pluggable/overridable
• Allow for Custom AuthN