The conflict detection between permission assignment constraints in role-based access control

Abstract

Assuring integrity of permission assignment (PA) constraints is a difficult task in role-based access control (RBAC) because of the large number of constraints, users, roles and permissions in a large enterprise environment. We provide solutions to this problem using the conflict concept. This paper introduces the conflict model in order to understand the conflicts easily and to detect conflicts effectively. The conflict model is classified as a permissionpermission model and a role-permission model. This paper defines two type conflicts using the conflict model. The first type is an inter-PA-constrainls (IPAC) conflict that takes place between PA constraints. The other type is a PA-PAC conflict that takes place between a PA and a PA constraint (PAC). Also, the conditions of conflict occurrence are formally specified and proved. We can assure integrity on permission assignment by checking conflicts before PA and PA constraints are applied. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.