[db-wg] Personalised authorisation

Tim, Denis, other database folks,

On Sat, 16 May 2015 16:46:44 +0200
Tim Bruijnzeels <tim at ripe.net> wrote:

> > The basic idea was to allow authorisation tokens in PERSON objects,
> 
> Yes, the important point here is that the credentials are on PERSONs,
> rather than in one anonymous blob that is today's MNTNER.

Basically, I think of PERSON objects as reflecting contact information
about someone in the real world. This has nothing to do with database
administration.

ROLE objects are a handy layer of indirection so that you can
substitute a job function any place you need contact information.
Again, nothing to do with database administration.

MNTNER objects are the equivalent of a website login. They are a way to
authenticate yourself to the database as a database user. They have
nothing to do with contact information.

----

This seems pretty straightforward, but it does seem to confuse
everyone.  Possibly the confusion comes from the name? "Maintainer"
doesn't really scream "this is how I authenticate myself, and what
authorizations are attached to".

I guess I'm fine with adding new authorization mechanisms to the
database... compared to our existing mechanisms it doesn't make
anything less secure. I do worry about it increasing the confusion
rather than making things more straightforward though. :(

Cheers,

--
Shane