Abstract: A system and method for maintaining security in a distributed computing environment comprises a policy manager located on a server for managing and distributing a security policy, and an application guard located on a client for managing access to securable components as specified by the security policy. In the preferred embodiment, a global policy specifies access privileges of the user to securable components. The policy manager may then preferably distribute a local client policy based on the global policy to the client. An application guard located on the client then manages access to the securable components as specified by the local policy.

Abstract: A system and method for generating an updated version of, or reconstructing a previously enforced version of, a local client security policy stored in an application guard. A policy manager distributes a change (or an accumulation of changes) to the currently enforced version of the security policy through a network to the application guard. The application guard uses the distributed change to update the currently enforced version of the local client security policy. To reconstruct a previously enforced version of a local security policy, the policy manager generates a reversing delta equal to the reverse of the change (or accumulation of changes) from a previously enforced version to the currently enforced version of the security policy, and distributes the reversing delta through the network to the application guard. The application guard applies the distributed reversing delta to the currently enforced version to reconstruct the previously enforced version.

Abstract: A system and method for analyzing a global security policy in a distributed computing environment. In one embodiment the security policy is a global security policy which is stored in, and managed by, a policy manager located on a server. In another embodiment the security policy is a local client security policy stored in an application guard located on a client server which manages access to various securable components of the distributed computing environment.

Abstract: A system and method for analyzing a global security policy in a distributed computing environment. In one embodiment the security policy is a global security policy which is stored in, and managed by, a policy manager located on a server. In another embodiment the security policy is a local client security policy stored in an application guard located on a client server which manages access to various securable components of the distributed computing environment.

Abstract: A system and method for generating an updated version of, or reconstructing a previously enforced version of, a local client security policy stored in an application guard. To update a local security policy, a policy manager distributes a change (or an accumulation of changes) to the currently enforced version of the security policy through a network to the application guard. The application guard uses the distributed change to update the currently enforced version of the local client security policy. To reconstruct a previously enforced version of a local security policy, the policy manager generates a reversing delta equal to the reverse of the change (or accumulation of changes) from the previously enforced version to the currently enforced version of the security policy, and distributes the reversing delta through the network to the application guard.