A Pattern System for Access Control

Abstract

Abstract:In order to develop trustworthy information systems, security aspects should be considered from the early project stages. This is particularly true for authorization and access control services, which decide which users can access which parts of the system and in what ways. Software patterns have been used with success to encapsulate best practices in software design. A good collection of patterns is an invaluable aid in designing new systems by inexperienced developers and is also useful to teach and understand difficult problems. Following in this direction, this paper presents a pattern system to describe authorization and access control models. First, we present a set of patterns that include a basic authorization pattern that is the basis for patterns for the wellestablished discretionary and role-based access control models. Metadata access control models have appeared recently to address the high flexibility requirements of open, heterogeneous systems, such as enterprise or e-commerce portals. These models are complex and we use the basic patterns to develop a set of patterns for metadata-based access control.

Patterns for Authentication and Authorisation Infrastructures

“…However, the approach by [6] uses ABAC. As has been proven by [14] ABAC is able to subsume other access control models such as DAC, MAC, or RBAC. An adaptation of the original pattern has already been advised in the work of [13].…”

Patterns for building dependable systems with trusted bases

“…A variety of security patterns have been proposed in the past. Among these, patterns for implementing access control [Fernandez and Pan 2001;Priebe et al 2004] can be used at the trusted kernel boundary to manage how resources are accessed.…”

Patterns for access control in distributed systems

“…The relationships appear as labeled arrows. In this diagram, traditional models, such as the Access Matrix and RBAC (Role-Based Access Control), are represented along with Attribute-Based Access control [Pri04] and Policy-Based Access control. The two latter models are more suitable in the case of distributed systems.…”