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Role-based access control

RBAC connects permissions to roles and assigns people to those roles. The data scope must be clear alongside the role name.

Also known asRBAC
Identity and access

Role-based access control (RBAC) connects permissions to roles and assigns people to those roles. A role can represent the duties of a reader or an order placer. Permissions must describe the allowed actions concretely.

Role and data scope

In a hypothetical customer portal, a customer administrator may manage accounts for her own company. The role name gives her no administrative power over other customer companies. Access decisions must enforce that boundary.

RBAC does not remove the need to plan resources and scope. Some rules require additional properties, such as the company a document belongs to. Roles and attribute-based checks can therefore work together. Merely increasing the number of role names does not resolve that boundary.

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