[Zope] GUF and security

[John Morton]

Lucas Vogel writes:
 > Could someone point me out to some good documentation to explain
 > security in Zope for me? I am trying to set up the GUF through my
 > database, but I find I am having a hard time figuring out proxy logins
 > and the like and would like to read up and have a good understanding of
 > the Zope model before I start outsourcing it to my db. 

The 'Delegating control' section of the Zope Content Managers' Guide
is a good start, as well as the README for GUF.

Basically, assigning a proxy role for an object (like a report method for a 
form) lets it perform any action that that role can perform. The basic 
idea is that users shouldn't (generally) have direct access to
database methods - especially ones related to the
authentication/authorization systems. In the case of GUF, you should
ensure that anonymous users can't access database methods, and create
a role that can access the the db methods. Then, for each report
method that needs to access one of these DB methods, you give assign
it a proxy role of authorizer. Thus the report get's to chew on the
user's input before doing anything like changing a password or setting 
roles.

Hope this helps.

John.