US Patent 7788489 System and method for permission administration using meta-permissions

A system and method for using meta-permissions to manage or administer object permissions within an object-oriented computing environment. A permission allowing a subject (e.g., a user or role) to access an object within the environment, such as a Java FilePermission or SocketPermission, is considered an object permission. An AdminPermission is defined and created to administer an object permission. Each AdminPermission instance refers to one or more object permissions, and specifies the actions that the AdminPermission allows to be performed on the object permissions (e.g., grant, revoke, modify).