Access Control and Security
The Perforce server stores file content in a master repository that, when properly installed, is inaccessible to users. User access to files is controlled by one or more Perforce superusers. A range of file access protection levels can be granted. Protections can be set for repository file paths, users, groups, and IP address subnets. The server can maintain an audit log of client access events for SOX and other compliance requirements.
User authentication is controlled by the Perforce system administrator. Password strength is configurable; ticket-based authentication can be configured as well. Triggers (custom scripts or programs that run at predefined events) can be set on many but not all Perforce user commands and used to extend user authentication (with LDAP or SSO, for example), to block or allow user commands, and to constrain or normalize file modifications. Triggers are run by the Perforce server and do not have access to client machines or workspaces.
Perforce, like most version control systems, does not encrypt file content in the master repository or on user machines. Perforce versions prior to 2012.1 cannot encrypt file content sent over the network. A tunneling protocol (like VPN or SSH) must be used to secure network transfers with those versions.
The Perforce client completely trusts the server, including writing arbitrary files anywhere in the local filesystem, and therefore running arbitrary code from the server. That means the server has complete control over the client user's account, including reading and writing and sending all non-source code files of the user. In environments where the Perforce server is managed by a third party, this poses a significant threat to the client's security and privacy.
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Famous quotes containing the words access, control and/or security:
“Whilst the rights of all as persons are equal, in virtue of their access to reason, their rights in property are very unequal. One man owns his clothes, and another owns a country.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Imagine believing in the control of inflation by curbing the money supply! That is like deciding to stop your dog fouling the sidewalk by plugging up its rear end. It is highly unlikely to succeed, but if it does it kills the hound.”
—Michael D. Stephens. “On Sinai, There’s No Economics,” New York Times (Nov. 13, 1981)
“Is a Bill of Rights a security for [religious liberty]? If there were but one sect in America, a Bill of Rights would be a small protection for liberty.... Freedom derives from a multiplicity of sects, which pervade America, and which is the best and only security for religious liberty in any society. For where there is such a variety of sects, there cannot be a majority of any one sect to oppress and persecute the rest.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)