capabilities

n. ability, skill, general ability or power of an organization or a machine to be used to do something or to do something

Capability-based security is a concept in the design of secure computing systems. A capability (known in some systems as a key) is a communicable, unforgeable token of authority. It refers to a value that references an object along with an associated set of access rights. A user program on a capability-based operating system must use a capability to access an object. Capability-based security refers to the principle of designing user programs such that they directly share capabilities with each other according to the principle of least privilege, and to the operating system infrastructure necessary to make such transactions efficient and secure.
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Noun
1. the quality of being capable -- physically or intellectually or legally; "he worked to the limits of his capability"
(synonym) capableness
(antonym) incapability, incapableness
(hypernym) ability
(hyponym) associability, associableness
(attribute) capable
2. the susceptibility of something to a particular treatment; "the capability of a metal to be fused"
(synonym) capacity
(hypernym) susceptibility, susceptibleness
(hyponym) activity
3. an aptitude that may be developed
(synonym) capableness, potentiality
(antonym) incapability, incapableness
(hypernym) aptitude
(hyponym) perfectibility, perfectability
(attribute) capable

(pl. )
of Capability
  

<operating system, security> An operating system security or access control model where specific types of access to a specific object are granted by giving a process this data structure or token.
The token may be unforgeable (typically by using encryption or hardware "tagged" memory). Capabilities are used in OSes such as Hydra, KeyKOS, EROS, Chorus/Mix, and the Stanford V system. Similar to Kerberos, but in an OS context.
Compare access control list.
(1998-03-08)