The next 700 access control models or a unifying meta-model?

Abstract

We address some fundamental questions, which were raised by Atluri and Ferraiolo at SACMAT'08, on the prospects for and benefits of a meta-model of access control. We demonstrate that a meta-model for access control can be defined and that multiple access control models can be derived as special cases. An anticipated consequence of the contribution that we describe is to encourage researchers to adopt a meta-model view of access control rather than them developing the next 700 particular instances of access control models.