Access vectors

Data is accessed by processes via system calls and possible user defined access methods. The user defined access methods are usually controlled via a userspace object manager. These access paths, also known as vectors, make up a set of actions that can be applied to the object. For instance, if a process opens a file, writes some data into the file, and then reads it back, the access vectors exercised would be open, read, and write. If a process debugs another process, the access vector would be ptrace.