Configurable Security Managers

Security Manager Classes
User Authentication

Firebird Vulcan introduces the architecture for loadable security managers. For the initial release, there is only one security manager, which emulates the Firebird security semantics. The architectural support for loadable security manager will permit installations to specify and enforce other security.

Security Manager Classes

The security manager is implemented with a C++ base class, like the provider interface. All security managers must support the interface, providing a framework for complex interactions between database engine and security manager while allowing future extensibility.

Like other configuration objects, security managers can be daisy-chained. A single installation can support a mixture of security managers.

User Authentication

The configuration files specify where Firebird Vulcan should look for user authentication data. That data can be in the installation-wide security.fdb, in another database, or in the target database itself. The configuration file can also specify that a database uses no authentication at all.

Firebird Vulcan also implements a user authentication extension to the published API designed for open-ended interaction with various loadable security managers. The user authentication facility also eliminates the public accessibility of account names and password hashes, significantly increasing database security.

SQL Support

Firebird Vulcan provides SQL language statements to support these operations:

 create user <username> password '<password>'
 alter user <username> password '<password>'
 drop user <username>
 upgrade user <username> password '<password>'