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Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2012 11:52:44 -0800
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Subject: Queries on AuthN and AuthZ for multi tenant Cassandra
From: Subrahmanya Harve <subrahmanyaharve@gmail.com>
To: user@cassandra.apache.org, dev@cassandra.apache.org
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We are using Cassandra 0.8.7 and building a multi-tenant cassandra platform
where we have a common KS and common CFs for all tenants. By using Hector's
virtual keyspaces, we are able to add modify rowkeys to have a tenant
specific id. (Note that we do not allow tenants to modify/create KS/CF. We
just allow tenants to write and read data) However we are in the process of
adding authentication and authorization on top of this platform such that
no tenant should be able to retrieve data belonging to any other tenant.

By configuring Cassandra for security using the documentation here -
http://www.datastax.com/docs/0.8/configuration/authentication , we were
able to apply the security constraints on the common keyspace and common
CFs. However this does not prevent a tenant from retrieving data belonging
to another tenant. For this to happen, we would need to have separate CFs
and/or keyspaces for each tenant.
Looking for more information on the topic here
http://cassandra-user-incubator-apache-org.3065146.n2.nabble.com/Re-Multi-tenancy-and-authentication-and-authorization-td5935230.htmland
other places, it looks like the recommendation is "not" to create
separate CFs and KSs for every tenant as this would have impacts on
Memtables and other memory issues. Does this recommendation still hold
good?
With jiras like
https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CASSANDRA-2006resolved, does it
mean we can now create multiple (but limited) CFs and KSs?
More generally, how do we prevent a tenant from intentional/accidental data
manipulation of data owned by another tenant? (given that all tenants will
provide the right credentials)

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