A method and system for managing access information for users and other entities in a distributed computing system is disclosed. An aspect of the invention relates to current user links between a first computing node and a second computing node. Objects are created/maintained to identify allowable links between computing nodes. Objects can also be created/maintained to store identification of chains of links. The current user link allows access for a user from the first computing node to the second computing node without user authentication by the second computing node. This can be implemented using trust relationships between the first and second computing nodes. Transitive aspects of the trust relationships can be handled by accessing information about chains of users/nodes. In addition, trust relationships can be administered by a local computing node.