Capabilities categorisation

•Full file system privilege
…Reserved for Trusted Computing Base
…Capabilities: TCB, AllFiles, CommDD, DiskAdmin
•Extended privileges
…Reserved for the Trusted Computing Environment
…Generally user is never aware
…Capabilities: PowerMgmt, MultimediaDD, ReadDeviceData, WriteDeviceData, ProtServ, DiskAdmin, NetworkControl, SwEvent, SurroundingsDD, DRM, etc
•Basic privileges
…Can be understood and, in some cases, granted by user
…Capabilities: NetworkServices, LocalServices, ReadUserData, WriteUserData, UserEnvironment, Location

A capability

A capability is a statement of trust
•Every executable is tagged at build time with some capabilities, this applies for both EXEs and DLLs
•At run time, every process has a set of capabilities
•Capabilities of a process never change
•Capabilities are assigned based on which APIs a process needs and therefore is authorised to use
•Capabilities, and policing of, is transparent to API users