Authorization Framework

The gCube Authorization framework is a token based authorization system in a gCube-based infrastructure. This framework in compliant with the Attribute-based access control (ABAC) that defines an access control paradigm whereby access rights are granted to users through the use of policies which combine attributes together. ABAC defines access control based on attributes which describe:

• the requesting entity (either the user or the service),
• the targeted resource (either the service or the resource),
• the desired action (read, write, delete, execute),
• and environmental or contextual information (either the VRE or the VO where the operation is executed).

ABAC is a logical access control model that is distinguishable because it controls access to objects by evaluating rules against the attributes of the entities (requesting entity or target resource) actions and the environment relevant to a request. ABAC relies upon the evaluation of attributes of the requesting entity, attributes of the targeted resource, environment conditions, and a formal relationship or access control rule defining the allowable operations for entity-resource attribute and environment condition combinations.

The model

Token based authorization

The token is a string generated on request by the Authorization service for identification purposes and associated with every entity belonging to a gCube-based infrastructure (users or services). The token is passed in every call and is automatically propagated in the lower layers.

Configuration Overview

The service runs on a smartgears node.

It relies on a postgresSQL instance to store the created tokens.