US Patent 7624432 Security and authorization in management agents

Provided are a method, a system, an article of manufacture, and a computer program product, wherein a first indicator is stored for a first entity, and wherein the first indicator identifies groups to which the first entity belongs and operations associated with the groups. The first entity receives a second indicator from a second entity, wherein the second indicator indicates privileges granted to the second entity for at least one operation on at least one group. A determination is made locally by the first entity, whether an operation requested by the second entity is to be executed by the first entity, based on a comparison of the second indicator to the first indicator.