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</details>
## XPC Authorization
Apple also proposes another way to authenticate if the connecting process has **permissions to call the an exposed XPC method**.
When an application needs to **execute actions as a privileged user**, instead of running the app as a privileged user it usually installs as root a HelperTool as an XPC service that could be called from the app to perform those actions. However, the app calling the service should have enough authorization.
An example could be found in [EvenBetterAuthorizationSample](https://github.com/brenwell/EvenBetterAuthorizationSample). In `App/AppDelegate.m` it tries to **connect** to the **HelperTool**. And in `HelperTool/HelperTool.m` the function **`shouldAcceptNewConnection`** **won't check** any of the requirements indicated previously. It'll always return YES:
However, there is some **authorization going on when a method from the HelperTool is called**.
The function **`applicationDidFinishLaunching`** from `App/AppDelegate.m` will create an empty authorization reference after the app has started. This should always work.\
Then, it will try to **add some rights** to that authorization reference calling `setupAuthorizationRights`:
// If we successfully connected to Authorization Services, add definitions for our default
// rights (unless they're already in the database).
if (self->_authRef) {
[Common setupAuthorizationRights:self->_authRef];
}
[self.window makeKeyAndOrderFront:self];
}
```
The function `setupAuthorizationRights` from `Common/Common.m` will store in the auth database `/var/db/auth.db` the rights of the application. Note how it will only add the rights that aren't yet in the database:
This means that at the end of this process, the permissions declared inside `commandInfo` will be stored in `/var/db/auth.db`. Note how there you can find for **each method** that will r**equire authentication**, **permission name** and the **`kCommandKeyAuthRightDefault`**. The later one **indicates who can get this right**.
There are different scopes to indicate who can access a right. Some of them are defined in [AuthorizationDB.h](https://github.com/aosm/Security/blob/master/Security/libsecurity\_authorization/lib/AuthorizationDB.h) (you can find [all of them in here](https://www.dssw.co.uk/reference/authorization-rights/)), but as summary:
<table><thead><tr><thwidth="284.3333333333333">Name</th><thwidth="165">Value</th><th>Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>kAuthorizationRuleClassAllow</td><td>allow</td><td>Anyone</td></tr><tr><td>kAuthorizationRuleClassDeny</td><td>deny</td><td>Nobody</td></tr><tr><td>kAuthorizationRuleIsAdmin</td><td>is-admin</td><td>Current user needs to be an admin (inside admin group)</td></tr><tr><td>kAuthorizationRuleAuthenticateAsSessionUser</td><td>authenticate-session-owner</td><td>Ask user to authenticate.</td></tr><tr><td>kAuthorizationRuleAuthenticateAsAdmin</td><td>authenticate-admin</td><td>Ask user to authenticate. He needs to be an admin (inside admin group)</td></tr><tr><td>kAuthorizationRightRule</td><td>rule</td><td>Specify rules</td></tr><tr><td>kAuthorizationComment</td><td>comment</td><td>Specify some extra comments on the right</td></tr></tbody></table>
In `HelperTool/HelperTool.m` the function **`readLicenseKeyAuthorization`** checks if the caller is authorized to **execute such method** calling the function **`checkAuthorization`**. This function will check the **authData** sent by the calling process has a **correct format** and then will check **what is needed to get the right** to call the specific method. If all goes good the **returned `error` will be `nil`**:
Note that to **check the requirements to get the right** to call that method the function `authorizationRightForCommand` will just check the previously comment object **`commandInfo`**. Then, it will call **`AuthorizationCopyRights`** to check **if it has the rights** to call the function (note that the flags allow interaction with the user).
In this case, to call the function `readLicenseKeyAuthorization` the `kCommandKeyAuthRightDefault` is defined to `@kAuthorizationRuleClassAllow`. So **anyone can call it**.
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