3. Features¶
3.1. PDP (Policy Decision Point)¶
3.1.1. XACML Standard Compliance¶
AuthzForce Server implements the OASIS XACML 3.0 core specification and various XACML 3.0 profiles.
3.1.1.1. XACML Core Specification¶
AuthzForce Server supports all mandatory and several optional features of OASIS XACML v3.0 core specification.
AuthzForce support status for each conformance table of the XACML Conformance section is detailed in the next sections.
The following markers apply: - M: the features is mandatory in the standard; - 0: the feature optional in the standard; - Y: the feature is supported by AuthzForce Server; - N: the features is not supported by AuthzForce Server.
3.1.1.1.1. Schema elements¶
Element name | M/O | Supported |
---|---|---|
xacml:Advice | M | Y |
xacml:AdviceExpression | M | Y |
xacml:AdviceExpressions | M | Y |
xacml:AllOf | M | Y |
xacml:AnyOf | M | Y |
xacml:Apply | M | Y |
xacml:AssociatedAdvice | M | Y |
xacml:Attribute | M | Y |
xacml:AttributeAssignment | M | Y |
xacml:AttributeAssignmentExpression | M | Y |
xacml:AttributeDesignator | M | Y |
xacml:Attributes | M | Y |
xacml:AttributeSelector | O | Y |
xacml:AttributesReference | O | N |
xacml:AttributeValue | M | Y |
xacml:CombinerParameter | O | Y |
xacml:CombinerParameters | O | Y |
xacml:Condition | M | Y |
xacml:Content | O | Y |
xacml:Decision | M | Y |
xacml:Description | M | Y |
xacml:Expression | M | Y |
xacml:Function | M | Y |
xacml:Match | M | Y |
xacml:MissingAttributeDetail | M | Y |
xacml:MultiRequests | O | N |
xacml:Obligation | M | Y |
xacml:ObligationExpression | M | Y |
xacml:ObligationExpressions | M | Y |
xacml:Obligations | M | Y |
xacml:Policy | M | Y |
xacml:PolicyCombinerParameters | O | Y |
xacml:PolicyDefaults | O | Y |
xacml:PolicyIdentifierList | O | Y |
xacml:PolicyIdReference | M | Y |
xacml:PolicyIssuer | O | Y |
xacml:PolicySet | M | Y |
xacml:PolicySetDefaults | O | Y |
xacml:PolicySetIdReference | M | Y |
xacml:Request | M | Y |
xacml:RequestDefaults | O | Y |
xacml:RequestReference | O | N |
xacml:Response | M | Y |
xacml:Result | M | Y |
xacml:Rule | M | Y |
xacml:RuleCombinerParameters | O | Y |
xacml:Status | M | Y |
xacml:StatusCode | M | Y |
xacml:StatusDetail | O | Y |
xacml:StatusMessage | O | Y |
xacml:Target | M | Y |
xacml:VariableDefinition | M | Y |
xacml:VariableReference | M | Y |
xacml:XPathVersion | O | Y |
3.1.1.1.2. Algorithms¶
Note that the algorithms planned for future deprecation are no longer supported.
3.1.1.1.3. Status Codes¶
3.1.1.1.4. Attributes¶
3.1.1.1.5. Data-types¶
3.1.1.1.6. Functions¶
3.1.1.2. XACML RBAC Profile¶
AuthzForce supports XACML v3.0 Core and Hierarchical Role Based Access Control (RBAC) Profile Version 1.0, except section 2.5 HasPrivilegesOfRole Policies and Requests.
3.1.1.3. XACML Multiple Decision Profile¶
AuthzForce partially supports XACML v3.0 Multiple Decision Profile Version 1.0 , in particular section 2.3 Repeated Attribute Categories.
Conformance table according to section 7, with AuthzForce support status:
3.1.1.4. XACML Data Loss Prevention / Network Access Control Profile¶
AuthzForce provides experimental support for XACML Data Loss Prevention / Network Access Control (DLP/NAC) Profile Version 1.0. Conformance table according to section 5, with AuthzForce support status:
3.1.1.5. XACML Additional Combining Algorithms Profile¶
AuthzForce provides experimental support for XACML 3.0 Additional
Combining Algorithms Profile Version
1.0,
i.e. on-permit-apply-second
policy combining algorithm.
3.1.1.6. XACML REST Profile¶
AuthzForce supports REST Profile of XACML v3.0 Version 1.0.
3.1.1.7. XACML JSON Profile¶
AuthzForce supports JSON Profile of XACML 3.0.
3.1.2. Safety & Security¶
- Detection of circular XACML policy references (PolicySetIdReference);
- Control of the maximum XACML PolicySetIdReference depth;
- Control of the maximum XACML VariableReference depth;
3.1.3. Performance¶
- Optional strict multivalued attribute parsing: if enabled,
multivalued attributes must be formed by grouping all
AttributeValue
elements in the same Attribute element (instead of duplicate Attribute elements); this does not fully comply with XACML 3.0 Core specification of Multivalued attributes (§7.3.3), but it usually performs better than the default mode since it simplifies the parsing of attribute values in the request; - Optional strict attribute Issuer matching: if enabled,
AttributeDesignators
without Issuer only match request Attributes without Issuer (and same AttributeId, Category…); this option is not fully compliant with XACML 3.0, §5.29, in the case that the Issuer is indeed not present on a AttributeDesignator; but it is the recommended option when all AttributeDesignators have an Issuer (the XACML 3.0 specification (5.29) says: If the Issuer is not present in the attribute designator, then the matching of the attribute to the named attribute SHALL be governed by AttributeId and DataType attributes alone.);
3.1.4. Extensibility Points¶
- Attribute Datatypes: you may extend the PDP engine with custom XACML attribute datatypes;
- Functions: you may extend the PDP engine with custom XACML functions;
- Combining Algorithms: you may extend the PDP engine with custom XACML policy/rule combining algorithms;
- Attribute Providers aka PIPs (Policy Information Points): you may plug custom attribute providers into the PDP engine to allow it to retrieve attributes from other attribute sources (e.g. remote service) than the input XACML Request during evaluation;
- Request Preprocessor: you may customize the processing of XACML Requests before evaluation by the PDP core engine (e.g. used for implementing XACML v3.0 Multiple Decision Profile Version 1.0 - Repeated attribute categories);
- Result Postprocessor: you may customize the processing of XACML Results after evaluation by the PDP engine (e.g. used for implementing XACML v3.0 Multiple Decision Profile Version 1.0 - Requests for a combined decision);
3.2. PAP (Policy Administration Point)¶
- Policy management: create/read/update/delete multiple policies and references from one to another (via PolicySetIdReference)
- Policy versioning: create/read/delete multiple versions per policy.
- Configurable root policy ID/version: top-level policy enforced by the PDP may be any managed policy (if no version defined in configuration, the latest available is selected)
- Configurable maximum number of policies;
- Configurable maximum number of versions per policy.
- Optional policy version rolling (when the maximum of versions per policy has been reached, oldest versions are automatically removed to make place).
3.3. REST API¶
- Defined in standard Web Application Description Language and XML schema so that you can automatically generate client code.
- Provides access to all PAP/PDP features mentioned in previous sections.
- Multi-tenant: allows to have multiple domains/tenants, each with its own PAP/PDP, in particular its own policy repository.
- Conformance with REST Profile of XACML v3.0 Version 1.0
- Supported data formats, aka content types:
application/xml
: XML based on API schema;application/fastinfoset
: Fast Infoset based on API’s XML schema;application/json
: JSON based on API’s XML schema with a generic XML-to-JSON mapping conventionapplication/xacml+xml
: XACML content only, as defined by RFC 7061application/xacml+json
: JSON format for XACML Request/Response on PDP only, as defined by XACML v3.0 - JSON Profile Version 1.0
3.4. High availability and load-balancing¶
- Integration with file synchronization tools (e.g. csync2) or distributed filesystems (e.g. NFS and CIFS) to build clusters of AuthzForce Servers.
3.5. Limitations¶
The following optional features from XACML v3.0 Core standard are not supported:
Elements
AttributesReferences
,MultiRequests
andRequestReference
;Functions
urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:3.0:function:xpath-node-equal
,urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:3.0:function:xpath-node-match
andurn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:3.0:function:access-permitted
;Algorithms planned for future deprecation.