In this article we propose a standard for role-based access control (RBAC). Although RBAC models have received broad support as a generalized approach to access control, and are well recognized for their many advantages in performing large-scale authorization management, no single authoritative definition of RBAC exists today. This lack of a widely accepted model results in uncertainty and confusion about RBAC's utility and meaning. The standard proposed here seeks to resolve this situation by unifying ideas from a base of frequently referenced RBAC models, commercial products, and research prototypes. It is intended to serve as a foundation for product development, evaluation, and procurement specification. Although RBAC continues to evolve as users, researchers, and vendors gain experience with its application, we feel the features and components proposed in this standard represent a fundamental and stable set of mechanisms that may be enhanced by developers in further meeting the needs of their customers. As such, this document does not attempt to standardize RBAC features beyond those that have achieved acceptance in the commercial marketplace and research community, but instead focuses on defining a fundamental and stable set of RBAC components. This standard is organized into the RBAC Reference Model and the RBAC System and Administrative Functional Specification. The reference model defines the scope of features that comprise the standard and provides a consistent vocabulary in support of the specification. The RBAC System and Administrative Functional Specification defines functional requirements for administrative operations and queries for the creation, maintenance, and review of RBAC sets and relations, as well as for specifying system level functionality in support of session attribute management and an access control decision process.

/pdf/proposed-nist-standard-for-role-based-access-control-2dc3elpcvo.pdf

Proposed NIST standard for role-based access control

This third edition of a classic textbook can be used to teach at the senior undergraduate and graduate levels. The material concentrates on fundamental theories as well as techniques and algorithms. The advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web, and, more recently, the emergence of cloud computing and streaming data applications, has forced a renewal of interest in distributed and parallel data management, while, at the same time, requiring a rethinking of some of the traditional techniques. This book covers the breadth and depth of this re-emerging field. The coverage consists of two parts. The first part discusses the fundamental principles of distributed data management and includes distribution design, data integration, distributed query processing and optimization, distributed transaction management, and replication. The second part focuses on more advanced topics and includes discussion of parallel database systems, distributed object management, peer-to-peer data management, web data management, data stream systems, and cloud computing. New in this Edition: New chapters, covering database replication, database integration, multidatabase query processing, peer-to-peer data management, and web data management. Coverage of emerging topics such as data streams and cloud computing Extensive revisions and updates based on years of class testing and feedback Ancillary teaching materials are available.

Principles of Distributed Database Systems

: An integrity policy defines formal access constraints which, if effectively enforced, protect data from improper modification. The author identifies the integrity problems posed by a secure military computer utility. Integrity policies addressing these problems are developed and their effectiveness evaluated. A prototype secure computer utility, Multics, is then used as a testbed for the application of the developed access controls.

/pdf/integrity-considerations-for-secure-computer-systems-1euz8w4arz.pdf

Integrity Considerations for Secure Computer Systems

A promising technique for protecting privacy and integrity of sensitive data is to statically check information flow within programs that manipulate the data. While previous work has proposed programming language extensions to allow this static checking, the resulting languages are too restrictive for practical use and have not been implemented. In this paper, we describe the new language JFlow, an extension to the Java language that adds statically-checked information flow annotations. JFlow provides several new features that make information flow checking more flexible and convenient than in previous models: a decentralized label model, label polymorphism, run-time label checking, and automatic label inference. JFlow also supports many language features that have never been integrated successfully with static information flow control, including objects, subclassing, dynamic type tests, access control, and exceptions. This paper defines the JFlow language and presents formal rules that are used to check JFlow programs for correctness. Because most checking is static, there is little code space, data space, or run-time overhead in the JFlow implementation.

/pdf/jflow-practical-mostly-static-information-flow-control-267j9xckn9.pdf

JFlow: practical mostly-static information flow control

The authors explore a commercial security policy (the Chinese Wall) which represents the behavior required of those persons who perform corporate analysis for financial institutions. It can be distinguished from Bell-LaPadula-like policies by the way that a user's permitted accesses are constrained by the history of his previous accesses. It is shown that the formal representation of the policy correctly permits a market analyst to talk to any corporation which does not create a conflict of interest with previous assignments. The Chinese Wall policy combines commercial discretion with legally enforceable mandatory controls. It is required in the operation of many financial services organizations; the authors conclude that it is, therefore, perhaps as significant to the financial world as Bell-LaPadula's policies are to the military. >

https://ccs.neu.edu/home/lieber/courses/csg379/f04/hw/5/chwall.pdf

The Chinese Wall security policy

: A unified narrative exposition of the ESD/MITRE computer security model is presented. A suggestive interpretation of the model in the context of Multics and a discussion of several other important topics (such as communications paths, sabotage and integrity) conclude the report. A full, formal presentation of the model is included in the Appendix.

/pdf/secure-computer-system-unified-exposition-and-multics-4lyt2ms4bp.pdf

D. Elliott Bell

Papers

Secure Computer System: Unified Exposition and Multics Interpretation