HP CIFS Server 3.0a Administrator's Guide version A.02.01

Glossary 263
Glossary
A
ACL Access Control List, meta-data that
describes which users are allowed access to
file data and what type of access is granted
to that data. ACLs define “access rights.” In
this scheme, users typically belong to
“groups,” and groups are given access rights
as a whole. Typical types of access rights are
read (list), write (modify), or create (insert.)
Different file systems have varying levels of
ACL support and different file systems
define different access rights. For example,
DOS has only one set of rights for a file
(since only one user is considered to use a
DOS system). A POSIX 6-compliant file
system allows multiple rights to be assigned
to multiple files and directories for multiple
users and multiple groups of users.
ASP Application service provider, an
e-business that essentially “rents”
applications to users.
Authentication Scheme to ensure that a
user who is accessing file data is indeed the
intended user. A secure networked file
system uses authentication to prevent access
occurring from someone pretending to be the
intended user.
Authorization Ensures that a user has
access only to file system data that the user
has the right to access. Just because a user is
authenticated does not mean he or she
should be able to read or modify any file. In
the simplest form or authorization, users are
given read or modify permissions to
individual files and directories in a file
system, through the use of access control
information (called an Access Control List,
or ACL.)
C
CIFS Common Internet File System, a
specification for a file access protocol
designed for the Internet.
HP CIFS Hewlett-Packard's
implementation of CIFS for UNIX. HP CIFS
provides both server and client modules for
both HP 9000 servers and workstations.
Credential A piece of information that
identifies a user. A credential may be as
simple as a number that is uniquely
associated with a user (like a social security
number), or it may be complicated and
contain additional identifying information. A
strong credential contains proof, sometimes
called a verifier, that the user of the
credential is indeed the actual user the
credential identifies.
D
Diffie-Hellman A protocol used to securely
share a secret key between two users.
Diffie-Hellman protocol uses a form of public
key exchange to share the secret key.
Diffie-Hellman is known to be susceptible to
an interceptor's attack, but authenticated
Diffie-Hellman Key Agreement, a later
enhancement, prevents such a
middle-person attack.
E
Encryption Encryption ensures that data
is viewable only by those who possess a
secret (or private) key. Encrypted data is
meaningless unless the secret key is used to
decrypt the data. Encryption and decryption
of data is called ciphering.