Provisional administrator privileges

Abstract

A system grants “provisional privileges” to a user request for the purpose of provisionally performing a requested transaction. If the provisionally-performed transaction does not put the system in a degraded state, the transaction is authorized despite the user request having inadequate privileges originally.

1 . A method performed on a computing device, the method comprising:
 receiving, by the computing device from a process, a request to perform a transaction on a system, where the process has insufficient privileges to perform the requested transaction;   determining, by the computing device, whether the requested transaction, once performed, would put the system into a degraded state; and   performing, by the computing device, the requested transaction despite the insufficient privileges in response to determining that the requested transaction, once performed, would not put the system into a degraded state.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  where the determining is based on provisional privileges. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  further comprising capturing a baseline snapshot of the system in response to determining that the requested transaction, once performed based on provisional privileges, would not put the system into a degraded state. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3  further comprising attempting, based on the provisional privileges and subsequent to capturing the baseline snapshot of the system, each operation of the requested transaction on the system. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  further comprising capturing, in response to each attempted operation of the requested transaction completing successfully, an update snapshot of the system. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5  further comprising determining, based on a comparison of the baseline snapshot and the update snapshot, whether or not the attempted and successfully completed operations put the system into a degraded state. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6  further comprising authorizing, in response to the comparison, the requested transaction. 
     
     
         8 . A computing device comprising:
 at least one processor;   memory; and   computer-executable instructions that, based on execution by the at least one processor, configure the computing device to:
 receive, from a process, a request to perform a transaction on a system, where the process has insufficient privileges to perform the requested transaction; 
 determine whether the requested transaction, once performed, would put the system into a degraded state; and 
 perform the requested transaction despite the insufficient privileges in response to determining that the requested transaction, once performed, would not put the system into a degraded state. 
   
     
     
         9 . The computing device of  claim 8  where whether the requested transaction, once performed, would put the system into a degraded state is determined based on provisional privileges. 
     
     
         10 . The computing device of  claim 9  further configured to capture a baseline snapshot of the system in response to determining that the requested transaction, once performed based on provisional privileges, would not put the system into a degraded state. 
     
     
         11 . The computing device of  claim 10  further configured to attempt, based on the provisional privileges and subsequent to the baseline snapshot being captured, each operation of the requested transaction on the system. 
     
     
         12 . The computing device of  claim 11  further configured to capture, in response to each attempted operation of the requested transaction completing successfully, an update snapshot of the system. 
     
     
         13 . The computing device of  claim 12  further configured to determine, based on a comparison of the baseline snapshot and the update snapshot, whether or not the attempted and successfully completed operations put the system into a degraded state. 
     
     
         14 . The computing device of  claim 13  further configured to authorize, in response to the comparison, the requested transaction. 
     
     
         15 . At least one computer storage medium comprising:
 memory that comprises-executable instructions that, based on execution by a computing device, configure the computing device to perform actions comprising:
 receiving, from a process, a request to perform a transaction on a system, where the process has insufficient privileges to perform the requested transaction; 
 determining whether the requested transaction, once performed, would put the system into a degraded state; and 
 performing the requested transaction despite the insufficient privileges in response to determining that the requested transaction, once performed, would not put the system into a degraded state. 
   
     
     
         16 . The at least one computer storage medium of  claim 15  where the determining is based on provisional privileges. 
     
     
         17 . The at least one computer storage medium of  claim 16 , the actions further comprising capturing a baseline snapshot of the system in response to determining that the requested transaction, once performed based on provisional privileges, would not put the system into a degraded state. 
     
     
         18 . The at least one computer storage medium of  claim 17 , the actions further comprising attempting, based on the provisional privileges and subsequent to capturing the baseline snapshot of the system, each operation of the requested transaction on the system. 
     
     
         19 . The at least one computer storage medium of  claim 18 , the actions further comprising capturing, in response to each attempted operation of the requested transaction completing successfully, an update snapshot of the system. 
     
     
         20 . The at least one computer storage medium of  claim 19 , the actions further comprising determining, based on a comparison of the baseline snapshot and the update snapshot, whether or not the attempted and successfully completed operations put the system into a degraded state.