Task-Specific Tokens

[TomConner]

Describe an authorization pattern in which a Passport Clearinghouse on a data analysis platform or research environment issues or obtains a new token specific to the data sets referenced by the workflow, task, or interactive analysis, i.e. a task-specific token.

To obtain a task-specific token, these steps are necessary:

1. Data repository: Store Researcher Passport Visas and and synchronize any permissions or authorization metadata e.g. principal groups
2. Analysis platform: Call authorization server. Specify researcher identity or researcher passport and the data sets needed by the task.
3. Authorization server: Return token(s) to reference the authorized and referenced data

sequenceDiagram
    autonumber
    actor RA as Researcher
    participant RE as Research Environment
    participant PB as Passport Broker<br>Identity Provider
    participant TE as Task Execution
    box  Data Repository
    participant AS as Authorization API
    participant DS as Access API<br>e.g. FHIR
    participant DR as Data Repository
    end

    RA->>RE: Log In
    RE->>PB: Log in
    PB->>RE: Authenticated
    RE->>PB: Request Passport
    PB->>RE: Passport (Identity and Visas)
    RE->>RA: Authenticated
    RA--)+RE: Start Task T
    RE->>TE: What Data Does T Use?
    TE->>RE: T Data Refs
    RE->>AS: Passport (Identity and Visas), T Data Refs
    AS->>DR: Set permissions
    DR->>AS: Success
    AS--)AS: Set expiration timer
    AS->>RE: Task-Specific Token
    RE--)+TE: Start Task T
    TE--)RE: Task Execution Started
    RE--)-RA: Task Execution Started
    loop
    TE->>DS: Request Data
    DS->>DR: Request Data
    DR->>DS: Data
    DS->>TE: Data
    end

The research environment sets data permissions to allow the researcher to access the needed authorized data sets. These permissions are stored with the data repository and a token is returned. The token is small and refers to the cached set of permissions. The token can then be sent over an HTTP header and used to authorize requests to obtain the data.