Chapter 9. Red Hat JBoss Data Grid Security: Authorization and Authentication

Red Hat JBoss Data Grid is able to perform authorization on CacheManagers and Caches. JBoss Data Grid authorization is built on standard security features available in a JDK, such as JAAS and the SecurityManager.

If an application attempts to interact with a secured CacheManager and Cache, it must provide an identity which JBoss Data Grid's security layer can validate against a set of required roles and permissions. Once validated, the client is issued a token for subsequent operations. Where access is denied, an exception indicating a security violation is thrown.

When a cache has been configured for with authorization, retrieving it returns an instance of SecureCache. SecureCache is a simple wrapper around a cache, which checks whether the "current user" has the permissions required to perform an operation. The "current user" is a Subject associated with the AccessControlContext.

JBoss Data Grid maps Principals names to roles, which in turn, represent one or more permissions. The following diagram represents these relationships: