Cardea: Dynamic Access Control in Distributed Systems

Abstract

Modern authorization systems span domains of administration, rely on many different authentication sources, and manage complex attributes as part of the authorization process. This paper presents Cardea, a distributed system that facilitates dynamic access control, as a valuable piece of an inter-operable authorization framework. First, the authorization model employed in Cardea and its functionality goals are examined. Next, critical features of the system architecture and its handling of the authorization process are then examined. Then the SAML and XACML standards, as incorporated into the system, are analyzed. Finally, the future directions of this project are outlined and connection points with general components of an authorization system are highlighted. 1