Controlling access to resources of edge devices

An edge computing device, comprising:

• a processor and memory, the processor configured to execute software instructions stored within the memory to:
• identify an authentication factor of a user or a system process at the edge computing device;
• determine an identity of the user or the system process based upon the authentication factor;
• receive an input from the user or the system process requesting access to or configuration of a resource of the edge computing device;
• determine whether the user or the system process has privileges to access or configure the resource by:
• formulating a claims request which requests claims based on the determined identity of the user or the system process, the claims request indicating one or more requested claims for the access to or configuration of the resource;
• sending the claims request to a local claims provider agent executed by the processor of the edge computing device;
• and
• determining, based on one or more claim request handling factors, that the local claims provider agent can generate a token including the requested claims of the claims request;
• in response to determining that the local claims provider agent can generate the token, generating the token with the requested claims via the local claims provider;
• send the token from the local claims provider to a separate application program executed by the processor of the edge computing device that is associated with the access to or configuration of the resource;
• receive, from the application program at an access control program executed by the processor of the edge computing device, the token including the requested claims;
• inspect the requested claims of the token at the access control program to identify a predefined resource parameter;
• and
• authorize, at the access control program, the access to or configuration of the resource based on a predetermined policy that specifies the presence of the predefined resource parameter in the requested claims is sufficient to allow the access to or configuration of the resource via the application program.

An edge computing device, comprising:

• a processor and memory, the processor configured to execute software instructions stored within the memory to:
• identify a user authentication factor of a user at the edge computing device;
• determine an identity of the user based upon the user authentication factor;
• receive a user input from the user requesting access to or configuration of a resource of the edge computing device;
• determine whether the user has privileges to access or configure the resource by:
• formulating a claims request which requests claims based on the determined identity of the user, the claims request indicating one or more requested claims for the access to or configuration of the resource;
• sending the claims request to a local claims provider agent executed by the processor of the edge computing device;
• and
• determining, based on one or more claim request handling factors, whether the local claims provider agent can generate a token including the requested claims of the claims request, and if so, generating the token with the requested claims via the local claims provider, else sending a request to a cloud service-side claims provider executed by a server over a computing network and receiving the token including the requested claims from the cloud service-side claims provider in response;
• send the token from the local claims provider to a separate application program executed by the processor of the edge computing device that is associated with the access to or configuration of the resource;
• receive, from the application program at an access control program executed by the processor of the edge computing device, the token including the requested claims;
• inspect the requested claims of the token at the access control program to identify a predefined resource parameter;
• and
• authorize, at the access control program, the access to or configuration of the resource based on a predetermined policy that specifies the presence of the predefined resource parameter in the requested claims is sufficient to allow the access to or configuration of the resource via the application program, wherein
• the edge computing device is installed on a vehicle;
• the request indicates users, resources, and/or operations pertaining to the vehicle;
• and
• the access is for an operation on the resource requested by the requesting user.