Capability

From Erights

Revision as of 12:44, 13 July 2009 by Toby.murray (Talk)
Jump to: navigation, search

Definition

A capability is a token that identifies an object and provides its holder with the permission to operate on the object it identifies. Capabilities must either be totally unforgeable or infeasible to forge.

Examples

Some examples of unforgeable capabilities:

  • Designations of objects in E. Those who hold these capabilities have the permission to invoke any method supported by the designated object.
  • Designations of functions and procedures in Emily. Those who hold these capabilities have the permission to call designated functions or procedures.
  • Designations of channels in Tamed Pict. Those who hold these capabilities may have a permission to make send and/or receive operations with the designated channel.

Some examples of capabilities that are infeasible to forge:

  • Designations of remote objects in E, such as captp://*orwqphzlugjwqj2wozz7tmg47ime466j@74.125.87.147:55189/oa6vn5whhapylswhzesdlqh5ppmjkcrq. Those who hold these capabilities have the permission to invoke any method supported by the designated object.
  • Password capabilities.

See also

XXX improve this section

See What is a Capability, Anyway? for a partisan explanation of what capabilities actually are.

See also Overview: Capability Computation

This page is a stub; it should be expanded with more information. If doing so, check the original E web site and the mailing list archives for content which could be moved into this page.
Personal tools
more tools