Oracle Help for the Web

How does security work?

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Definition

OracleAS Portal imposes privilege levels to ensure protection for your data. To determine access to an object, OracleAS Portal synthesizes the answers to the following questions:

Is the object public or restricted to certain users?
Have you or any of your groups been granted privileges for the object?
Have you or any of your groups been granted a global privilege for all objects of this type?
Do you belong to one of the special groups created by OracleAS Portal?

Let's look at each of these questions individually.

Is the object public or restricted to certain users?

All objects in OracleAS Portal are either public or controlled by an access list. The access list states which users and groups can interact with the object and to what extent. If the object is public, anyone can see it, even users who do not log on.

Have you or any of your groups been granted explicit privileges for the object?

If an object is not public, it is controlled by an access list. The creator of the object, or someone with the Manage privilege for the object, uses this list to explicitly grant privileges to users or groups. For example, one group might be able to see the object, but not change it, while another might be able to do anything to the object. All members of a group have the same level of access to an object. That is, one cannot grant access to everyone in a group EXCEPT one or two members.

To see what privileges you have been granted for an object, check the object's Access tab. If you can't edit the object, you won't be able to see the Access tab. Contact the object's owner or the portal administrator.

Have you or any of your groups been granted a global privilege for all objects of this type?

A global privilege applies to all objects of a given type. For example, if you have the Manage privilege for all styles, you can create, delete, or change any style within OracleAS Portal. Global privileges, which exist at both the group and user level, are a means of implicitly granting access to an object. Contrast this to the object's access list, through which privileges are explicitly granted.

Do you belong to one of the special groups created by OracleAS Portal?

When your user account is created, the portal administrator decides if you are allowed to log on. If you are, you are considered an authorized user. If you are not, you are a public user. Authorized users are added to the Authenticated Users group, one of the four default groups. This group has the Create global privilege for pages and styles. This means that any authorized user can create these objects.

The portal administrator may also have assigned you to special groups: Portal Administrators, Portlet Publishers, or Portal Developers. Each of these groups have their own set of global privileges.

Notes

If a group you belong to has higher privileges for an object type than you have been granted as an individual user, you are granted the higher privilege level.
There is no way to display a comprehensive list of who can access a particular object.

Additional Information

On Portal Center:

For more information go to the documentation section of Portal Center.