Implementing Policy Rules in Attributes Based Access Control with XACML within Cloud-Enabled IoT Environment

The Internet of Things (IoT) extends internet connectivity to a wide range of smart devices. However, battery autonomy, computational capability and storage capacity are major technology challenges that hinder increased implementation and adoption. Although the integration of the Internet of Things (IoT) with Cloud Computing is considered as a highly promising solution in overcoming these bottlenecks, it raises security concerns, especially access control. Recently, a variety of access control models have been developed to help protect confidential information and restrict access to sensitive data. Because of its flexibility and scalability, the consensus is that the Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) is the most appropriate model in a dynamic environment. In the context of IoT, the ABAC model has the ability to enforce data privacy and ensure a secure connection between IoT devices and cloud providers. One of the core components of the ABAC model is access policies, these are used to deny or allow user’ requests. To achieve that, an access policy language is required to implement policy rules in ABAC model. In this study, we propose a method based on EXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML) to prevent all unauthorized access to remote resources. This policy language is a particularly efficient and appropriate technique within a context of IoT due to its compatibility with heterogonous platforms. 