Patent ID: 7761456

Claim:
A method, comprising: storing one or more backup versions of a plurality of storage objects in one or more storage devices; initiating a generation of a plurality of database entries, wherein each database entry corresponds to a backup version of a storage object of the plurality of storage objects, wherein each database entry includes an indication of a location of the corresponding backup version within the one or more storage devices, wherein each database entry includes an encoding of a security descriptor associated with the storage object, wherein the encoding of the security descriptor associated with the storage object is generated by applying a lossy compression technique to the security descriptor; receiving a backup version search request from a user, wherein the backup version search request comprises one or more user-specified search terms; identifying a compatible set of security descriptors, wherein the compatible set of security descriptors comprises one or more security descriptors that are compatible with authorization privileges of the user; generating an encoding of each of the compatible set of security descriptors by applying the lossy compression technique; performing a search of the plurality of database entries based on search criteria, wherein the search criteria comprise the one or more user-specified search terms and the encodings of the compatible set of security descriptors, wherein results of the search exclude database entries that do not include an encoding of at least one of the compatible set of security descriptors; and identifying, based on the search, one or more backup versions of a particular storage object that the user is authorized to access.