I am trying to write a self-limiting application (i.e. an application that asks for authorization before performing certain functions). I have reviewed the Security framework which seems to be intended for requirements like this, but fail to understand how this would work in my specific case.

As far as I understand the self-limiting application defines a right, which it then tries to acquire before performing the limited function.

If the administrator has defined this right in /etc/authorization (or if the application has done so after having aquired administrator authorization), that definition is used as the criteria for granting/ denying the right.

If, however /etc/authorization does not contain a definition for the application-specific right, the security framework defaults to using the default rule, which is to require explicit authorization as an administrator.

My situation seems to be a little bit different. I would like the application to specify the rule for aquiring the right (e.g. authorization as a member of a certain group). I want this to work out of the box, however, without requiring the administrator to modify /etc/authorization beforehand, and without requiring the user to enter an admin password in order to have the application "install" the right definition into /etc/authorization.

(Of course, it would be nice if the site administrator would continue to have the option to modify the requirements using /etc/ authorization, I just don't want to make this a requirement for using the application.)

So I guess the question comes down to: is there a way to use the Security framework (or any other system-supplied mechanism) to perform authorization according to application-defined rules that have not been added to /etc/authorization?

Is that even possible?

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