An authorization has a name that is used internally. For example, solaris.system.date is the name of an authorization. An authorization has a short description that appears in the graphical user interfaces (GUIs). For example, Set Date & Time is the description of the solaris.system.date authorization.
By convention, authorization names consist of the reverse order of the Internet name of the supplier, the subject area, any subareas, and the function. The parts of the authorization name are separated by dots. An example would be com.xyzcorp.device.access. Exceptions to this convention are the authorizations from Oracle, which use the prefix solaris instead of an Internet name. The naming convention enables administrators to apply authorizations in a hierarchical fashion. A wildcard (*) can represent any strings to the right of a dot.
As an example of how authorizations are used, the Network Link Security rights profile has the solaris.network.link.security authorization only, while the Network Security rights profile has the Network Link Security profile as a supplementary profile, plus the solaris.network.* and solaris.smf.manage.ssh authorizations.