A Review of Delegation and Break-Glass Models for Flexible Access Control Management

Access control models provide important means for the systematic specification and management of the permissions in a business information system. While there are may well-known access control models (e.g., RBAC), standard access control models are often not suited for handling exceptional situations. The demand to increase the flexibility of access management has been approached mainly via the development of delegation models and break-glass models. This paper presents the results of a literature review of 329 delegation and break-glass approaches. We give an overview on the existing body of scientific literature in these two areas and compare 35 selected approaches in detail. We reveal different ways of providing delegation and break-glass concepts in general as well as in the context of business process management. Moreover, we identify different sub-topics that have not yet been addressed in detail and thus provide opportunities for future research.

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