Enforcement Policy for Access Control Monitoring
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Solution Overview
Problem
Managing access control in complex computer systems is challenging due to the difficulty in determining appropriate permissions for users, leading to potential overly broad access and increased administrative burden as systems grow in size and complexity.
Innovation Solution
Implementing enforcement policies that temporarily supersede existing computing resource policies to enable controlled access, allowing customers to specify permissions for a limited time, thereby allowing authorized actions regardless of other policies, and generating reports to identify missing or denied permissions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If resource owners grant access to users to perform actions on behalf of the resource owner, then user productivity and system functionality improve, but security risks and access control complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary analysis of access requests by evaluating user identities, resource requirements, and policy conditions before granting access. This advance evaluation ensures that only appropriate access permissions are granted, maintaining security while enabling necessary user productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors access patterns and policy violations, using this feedback to dynamically adjust access decisions and generate alerts. This feedback mechanism maintains security by detecting and responding to potential threats while allowing legitimate user operations to proceed smoothly.
2Measurement precision
If resource owners determine appropriate permission levels for users, then access control precision improves, but time and labor requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically evaluates access requests against stored policies and user profiles, making permission decisions without requiring manual resource owner intervention. This self-service capability maintains precise access control while eliminating the time and labor burden of manual permission management.
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-configures policies, user profiles, and resource definitions in advance, enabling automated real-time access decisions. This preliminary setup work eliminates the need for manual permission evaluation during operations, achieving both precision and efficiency.
3Ease of operation
If resource owners provide users with broad access permissions, then ease of operation improves, but security risks increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system grants users different permission levels for different resources based on their specific needs and roles, rather than applying uniform broad or restrictive permissions. This localized permission approach maintains ease of operation for necessary tasks while minimizing security risks by limiting access scope to only what is required.
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-evaluates each access request against multiple policies and conditions before granting permission, determining the most appropriate access level in advance. This preliminary evaluation enables ease of operation for legitimate requests while preventing security risks by blocking inappropriate access attempts.
4Measurement precision
If the system monitors and manages multiple user roles and policies across many computing resources, then access control accuracy improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses a unified policy evaluation framework that handles multiple user roles, resource types, and permission conditions through a single integrated mechanism. This universal approach maintains high access control accuracy while reducing system complexity by eliminating the need for separate management systems for different resource types.
Solution Approach 2:
The system divides complex policy evaluation into separate modular components, each handling specific aspects such as user authentication, resource identification, policy matching, and decision enforcement. This segmentation maintains accurate access control while reducing overall system complexity through modular, manageable components.
Data Source
AI summary
A computing resource service receives a request to access the service and perform various actions. In response to the request, the computing resource service obtains a set of active policies that are applicable to the request. As a result of the service determining that the set of active policies fail to provide sufficient permissions for fulfillment of the request, the service determines if an enforcement policy is available that is applicable to the request. The service evaluates the request using the enforcement policy such that if the enforcement policy includes permissions sufficient for fulfillment of the request, the request is fulfilled.