Method for enabling a web server running a “closed” native operating system to impersonate a user of a web client to obtain a protected file

US6338064B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• International Business Machines Corporation · US

Inventors

• Michael Bradford Ault · Austin, US
• Garry L. Child · Austin, US
• Ernst Robert Plassmann · Pflugerville, US
• Bruce Arland Rich · Round Rock, US
• Theodore Jack London Shrader · Austin, US
• Davis Kent Soper · Cedar Park, US

Key dates

• Filing date: May 14, 1998
• Grant date: Jan 8, 2002
• Expiry date: May 14, 2018

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10S707/99939
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A method of authenticating a Web client to a Web server connectable to a distributed file system of a distributed computing environment. The distributed computing environment includes a security service for returning a credential to a user authenticated to access the distributed file system. The method preferably operates within the context of a native operating system environment such as “Windows NT”. Upon initialization of the Web server, a session manager creates a pool of temporary Windows NT user identities. In response to a Web client browser request, a temporary NT user identity is associated with proper DCE credentials. A server process then impersonates the returned NT user identity on a thread which is attempting to access the requested resource.