HP System Dictionary/XL General Reference Manual Vol 1 (32256-90004)

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5 Dictionary Security
Overview
System Dictionary includes a security scheme to limit access to authorized users, and to control the level of
access of each user. Generally, this scheme consists of the following requirements:
1 You must use the correct scope and its associated password to have the necessary access rights
to the dictionary.
2 To have unlimited access to a definition or occurrence, the current scope must be either its owner
scope or the Dictionary Administrator scope. A scope that does not own a particular occur-
rence may have explicit access to it by being associated with that occurrence.
3 The entities and relationships in the dictionary must have the correct sensitivity to allow access
by a scope that is not its owner scope, the Dictionary Administrator scope, or a scope that is as-
sociated with the occurrence.
System Dictionary checks for the necessary dictionary open mode and scope rights it needs to
succeed, and if attempting to access an occurrence, also checks the association and sensitivity of that
occurrence. If any of the following occur, the operation fails and an appropriate error code is returned.
• The dictionary is not open in the proper mode.
• The current scope does not have sufficient scope rights.
• The scope attempting to access an occurrence does not have the necessary association with that occur-
rence.
• The sensitivity of the occurrence restricts access.
This chapter contains references to all System Dictionary security operations, and to a number of
operations whose performance and output depend greatly on the particular security scheme installed at
the time you call them. To completely understand all of the information in this chapter, it may be necessary
to refer to the detailed explanations of either the System Dictionary intrinsics, which are located in
Chapter 4 of the HP System Dictionary/XL Intrinsics Reference Manual, or the descriptions of the
SDMAIN commands, which are located in Chapter 4 of the HP System Dictionary/XL SDMAIN Reference
Manual.
Scopes
Scopes and their associated passwords are the primary means that System Dictionary uses to limit
dictionary access to authorized users, and to control the level of access they have to the definitions that
System Dictionary contains. Each scope may have up to six scope rights (see next page) which define the
capabilities/access rights that the scope has to the dictionary.
Scopes are global in System Dictionary and are defined across structure, domains, versions, and
occurrences.
Ownership
Every System Dictionary component is owned by a scope. System Dictionary includes a built-in scope
called CORESET, which owns all of the entity types, relationship types, relationship classes, and
attributes supplied on the installation tape. It also owns the Dictionary Administrator scope, which