Towards a credential-based implementation of compound access control policies

We describe a layered approach to access control for distributed and interoperable computing systems. Firstly, compound access control policies are conceptually specified, using the policy algebra proposed by Bonatti, Capitani di Vimercati and Samarati. Secondly, SPKI/SDSI is exploited to implement and to enforce a policy specification by means of credentials. Therefore, SPKI/SDSI is slightly extended, in particular in order to allow algebra expressions over local names as subjects in authorisation certificates and to deal with the subtraction operator of the algebra. Besides presenting the overall approach, the paper elaborates some details for a still powerful fraction of the policy algebra, thereby examining the correctness of the credential-based implementation.

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