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Access control on the web is quite varied, but the most common form of it comes in the form of role-based access list.
In brief, every identified user may be given any number of usergroups and any number of user-individual access rights. The usergroups can be given any number of access rights. Usergroups are always additive - if usergroup A has the rights X and Y and usergroup B has the rights X and Z, a user in both usergroup A and B will have the rights X, Y and Z. Every access right can be arbitrarily assigned to low-level or high-level actions, any of which may be ladden with or without prerequisites (such as the in-built 'democratic' modifier that requires other members of the usergroup to agree).
Common access rights
- RESTART (the right to restart a Fragment, server or network)
- REVOKE (the right to remove any access rights)
- GRANT (the right to grant other users rights from the set that oneself has, including GRANT, and to remove access rights from users without GRANT)
- EVICT (the right to kick or ban a user)
- MOLD (the right to reshape the landscape)
- GLOBAL (the right to send Fragment-global messages)
- ROLE (the right to swap places with a Puppet with a predefined role)
- QUARANTINE (the right to create a quarantine zone)
- RELOCATE (the right to remotely teleport another user)
- FMORPH (the right to bypass avatar restrictions)
- WRITE (the right to write or re-write metadata in the Fragment)
- FREAD (the right to access all metadata in the Fragment - even metadata flagged as incomplete or Fragment-private)
- HOP (the right to teleport throughout the Fragment)
- MORPH (the right to change one's avatar in accordance with avatar restrictions)
- READ (the right to access regular metadata)
Common usergroups
Guest / User:
- HOP
- MORPH
- READ
Guide:
- all guest/user access rights
- ROLE
- RELOCATE
- FMORPH
- FREAD
Gamemaster:
- all guide access rights
- WRITE
Moderator:
- all gamemaster access rights
- EVICT
Admin:
- all moderator access rights
- QUARANTINE
- GRANT
- MOLD
- GLOBAL
Founder:
- all admin access rights
- REVOKE
- RESTART (democratic; requires all founders to agree)
Authentication
Actual user authentication (i.e. determining the identity of a user) varies strongly between servers. Sanctuary (re)identifies users on connection to a Fragment using their hostmask and an automated challenge-response handshake the user needs access to their private key for - and maintains a session for the time the user remains in the Fragment. This is true for Denizens (which are expected to have a localhost hostmask) as well as Citizens. Autonomous Puppets are free to move between Fragments, but foreign autonomous Puppets are authenticated on connection with Sanctuary as a whole.
