An Optimistic Mandatory Access Control Model for Distributed Collaborative Editors

Distributed Collaborative Editors (DCE) provide computer support for modifying simultaneously shared documents, such as articles, wiki pages and programming source code, by dispersed users. Controlling access in such systems is still a challenging problem, as they need dynamic access changes and low latency access to shared documents. In this paper, we propose a Mandatory Access Control (MAC) based on replicating the shared document and its authorization policy at the local memory of each user. To deal with latency and dynamic access changes, we use an optimistic access control technique where enforcement of authorizations is retroactive. We show that naive coordination between updates of both copies can create security hole on the shared document by permitting illegal modification, or rejecting legal modification. Finally, we present a novel framework for managing authorizations in collaborative editing work which may be deployed easily on P2P networks