XACML v3.0 Multiple Decision Profile Version 1.0
Committee Specification 01
10 August 2010
Specification URIs:
This Version:
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http://docs.oasis-open.org/xacml/3.0/xacml-3.0-multiple-v1-spec-cs-01-en.doc (Authoritative)
http://docs.oasis-open.org/xacml/3.0/xacml-3.0-multiple-v1-spec-cs-01-en.pdf
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http://docs.oasis-open.org/xacml/3.0/xacml-3.0-multiple-v1-spec-cd-03-en.pdf
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Technical Committee:
OASIS eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML) TC
Chair(s):
Bill Parducci, <bill@parducci.net>
Hal Lockhart, Oracle <hal.lockhart@oracle.com>
Editor(s):
Erik Rissanen, Axiomatics AB <erik@axiomatics.com>
Related work:
This specification replaces or supercedes:
This specification is related to:
Declared XML Namespace(s):
None
Abstract:
This document provides a profile for requesting more than one access control decision in a single XACML Request Context, or for requesting a single combined decision based on multiple individual decisions.
Status:
This document was last revised or approved by the eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML) TC on the above date. The level of approval is also listed above. Check the “Latest Version” or “Latest Approved Version” location noted above for possible later revisions of this document.
Technical Committee members should send comments on this specification to the Technical Committee’s email list. Others should send comments to the Technical Committee by using the “Send A Comment” button on the Technical Committee’s web page at http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/xacml/.
For information on whether any patents have been disclosed that may be essential to implementing this specification, and any offers of patent licensing terms, please refer to the Intellectual Property Rights section of the Technical Committee web page http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/xacml/ipr.php.
The non-normative errata page for this specification is located at http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/xacml/.
Notices
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Table of Contents
2 Requests for multiple decisions
2.1 Nodes identified by “scope”
2.1.2 Original request context syntax
2.2.2 Original request context
2.3 Repeated <Attributes> categories
2.3.2 Original request context
2.4 By reference to <Attributes> elements
2.4.2 Original request context
3 Requests for a combined decision
4 Conceptual model for creating Individual Decision Requests
7.1 Processor of requests for multiple decisions as nodes identified by “scope”
7.2 Processor of requests for multiple decisions as nodes identified by XPath
7.3 Processor of requests for multiple decisions by multiple <Attributes> elements
7.4 Processor of requests for multiple decisions by reference to <Attributes> elements
7.5 Processor of requests for a combined decision
{Non-normative}
The policy evaluation performed by an XACML Policy Decision Point, or PDP, is defined in terms of a single decision request in the XACML Specification [XACML], with the authorization decision contained in a single <Result> element of the response context. A Policy Enforcement Point, or PEP, however, may wish to submit a single request context for multiple access control decisions, and may wish to obtain a single response context that contains a separate authorization decision (<Result> element) for each requested decision. Such a request context might be used to avoid sending multiple decision request messages between a PEP and PDP, for example. Additionally, a PEP may wish to submit a single request context for multiple decisions, and may wish to obtain a single authorization decision (<Result> element) that indicates whether access is permitted to all of the requested decisions. Such a request context might be used when the requester wants access to an entire XML document, to an entire sub-tree of elements in such a document, or to an entire file system directory with all its subdirectories and files, for example.
This Profile describes several ways in which a PEP can request multiple authorization decisions in a single request context, and how the result of each such authorization decision is represented in the single response context that is returned to the PEP.
This Profile also describes a mechanism by which a PEP can request a single combined authorization decision in response to a request for multiple decisions.
Support for each of the mechanisms described in this Profile is optional for compliant XACML implementations.
Hierarchical resource
A resource that is organized as a tree or forest (Directed Acyclic Graph) of individual resources called nodes.
Node
An individual resource that is part of a hierarchical resource.
Commonly used resource attributes are abbreviated as follows:
“resource-id” attribute
A resource attribute with an AttributeId of “urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:1.0:resource:resource-id”.
“scope” attribute
A resource attribute with an AttributeId of “urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:2.0:resource:scope”. See Section 5.1 for more information about this attribute.
“content-selector”
An attribute with an AttributeId of “urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:3.0:content-selector”. See [Hierarchical] for more information about this attribute.
“multiple:content-selector”
An attribute with an AttributeId of “urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:3.0:profile:multiple:content-selector”. See section 2.2 for more information about this attribute.
The key words “MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, “SHALL NOT”, “SHOULD”, “SHOULD NOT”, “RECOMMENDED”, “MAY”, and “OPTIONAL” in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
The phrase {Optional} means that the described functionality is optional for compliant XACML implementations, but, if the functionality is claimed as being supported according to this Profile, then it SHALL be supported in the way described.
Example code listings appear like this.
In descriptions of syntax, elements in angle brackets (“<”, “>”) are to be replaced by appropriate values, square brackets (“[“, “]”) enclose optional elements, elements in quotes are literal components, and “*” indicates that the preceding element may occur zero or more times.
[Hierarchical] OASIS Committee Specification 01, XACML v3.0
Hierarchical Resource Profile Version 1.0, August 2010, http://docs.oasis-open.org/
[RFC2119] S. Bradner, Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels, http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt, IETF RFC 2119, March 1997.
[XACML] OASIS Committee Specification 01, eXtensible access
control markup language (XACML) Version 3.0. August 2010. http://docs.oasis-open.org/
[XPath] XML Path Language (XPath), Version 1.0, W3C Recommendation 16, November 1999. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath
None
{Optional}
A single XACML request context MAY represent a request for multiple access control decisions. The syntax and semantics of such requests and responses are specified in this Section.
The <Result> elements produced by evaluating a request for multiple access control decisions SHALL be identical to those that would be produced from a series of requests, each requesting exactly one of the decisions. Each such decision is called an Individual Decision. The conceptual request context that corresponds to each <Result> element is called an Individual Decision Request. This mapping of an original request context containing multiple authorization decision requests to Individual Decision Requests, and the corresponding mapping of multiple authorization decisions to multiple <Result> elements in a single response context MAY be performed by the Context Handler described in the non-normative Data-flow model of the core XACML specification [XACML].
Several ways of specifying requests for multiple access control decisions are described in the following Sections. Each way of specifying requests describes the Individual Decision Requests that correspond to the <Result> elements in the response context.
A single XACML request context submitted by a PEP MAY use more than one of these ways of requesting access to multiple decisions.
{Optional}
This Section describes the use of two values for the “scope“ resource attribute to specify a request for access to multiple resources in a hierarchy. This syntax MAY be used with any hierarchical resource [Hierarchical] which is not an XML document. The “scope” resource attribute is defined in Section 5.
The following URI SHALL be used as a URI identifier for the functionality specified in this Section of this Profile. This identifier represents metadata about this specification and implementations implementing this specification. The identifier MAY be used to describe capabilities of an implementation or to make other references to this specification.
· urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:3.0:profile:multiple:scope
The original XACML request context <Attributes> element in the resource category SHALL contain a “scope” attribute with a value of either “Children”, or “Descendants”.
Such a request context SHALL be interpreted as a request for access to a set of nodes in a hierarchy relative to the single node specified in the “resource-id” attribute. If the value of the “scope” attribute is “Children”, each Individual Decision Request is for the one node indicated by the “resource-id” attribute (or attributes, where the single resource has multiple normative identifiers) and all of its immediate child nodes. If the value of the “scope” attribute is “Descendants”, the Individual Decision Request is for the one node indicated by the “resource-id” attribute and all of its descendant nodes.
Each Individual Decision Request SHALL be identical to the original request context with two exceptions: the “scope” attribute SHALL NOT be present and the <Attributes> element in the resource category SHALL represent a single Individual Resource. This <Attributes> element SHALL contain at least one “resource-id” attribute, and all values for such attributes SHALL be unique, normative identities of the Individual Resource. If the “resource-id” attribute in the original request context contained an Issuer, the “resource-id” attributes in the Individual Resource Request SHALL contain the same Issuer. The “resource-id” attributes in the Individual Decision Request SHALL contain the same IncludeInResult.value as the “resource-id” attribute in the original request context
Neither XACML nor this Profile specifies how the Context Handler obtains the information required to determine which nodes are children or descendants of a given node.
{Optional}
This Section describes use of an XPath [XPath] expression in the “multiple:content-selector” attribute to specify a request for access described by multiple nodes in an XML document. This syntax SHALL be used only with resources, subjects, actions or other categories which are or are described by XML documents.
The following URI SHALL be used as the URI identifier for the functionality specified in this Section of this Profile. This identifier represents metadata about this specification and implementations implementing this specification. This identifier MAY be used to describe capabilities of an implementation or to make other references to this specification.
· urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:3.0:profile:multiple:xpath-expression
The original XACML request context <Attributes> element SHALL contain a <Content> element and a “multiple:content-selector” attribute with a DataType of “urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:3.0:data-type:xpathExpression”, such that the <AttributeValue> of the “multiple:content-selector” attribute is an XPath expression that evaluates to a nodeset that represents multiple nodes in the <Content> element.
Such a request context SHALL be interpreted as a request for individual decisions regarding each of the nodes in the nodeset selected by the XPath expression given in the <AttributeValue> of the “multiple:content-selector” attribute.
Each Individual Decision Request SHALL be identical to the original request context with two exceptions: the “multiple:content-selector” attribute SHALL NOT be present and an added “content-selector” attribute value SHALL be an XPath expression that evaluates to a single node in the <Content> element. If the “multiple:content-selector” attribute in the original request context contained an Issuer, the “content-selector” attribute in the Individual Decision Request SHALL contain the same Issuer. The “content-selector” attribute in the Individual Decision Request SHALL contain the same IncludeInResult as the “multiple:content-selector” attribute in the original request context,
If multiple <Attributes> elements in different categories contain a “multiple:content-selector” attribute, then the set of Individual Decision Requests will be formed from the the cross product of the nodesets selected by the “multiple:content-selector” XPath expressions in the different different categories. See Section 4 for detailed description of the processing model.
{Optional}
This Section describes use of multiple <Attributes> elements with repeated category in a request context to specify a request for access to multiple decisions. This syntax MAY be used with any resource or resources, or any other category, regardless of whether they are XML documents or not and regardless of whether they are hierarchical resources [Hierarchical] or not.
The following URI SHALL be used as the URI identifier for the functionality specified in this Section of this Profile. This identifier represents metadata about this specification and implementations implementing this specification. This identifier MAY be used to describe capabilities of an implementation or to make other references to this specification
· urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:3.0:profile:multiple:repeated-attribute-categories
The XACML request context SHALL contain multiple <Attributes> elements with equal category.
Such a request context SHALL be interpreted as a request for access to all situations specified in the individual <Attributes> elements. Each <Attributes> element SHALL represent one Individual Resource, subject, or another category unless that element utilizes the other mechanisms described in this Profile.
For each combination of repeated <Attributes> elements, one Individual Decision Request SHALL be created. This Individual Request SHALL be identical to the original request context with one exception: only one <Attributes> element of each repeated category SHALL be present. If such a <Attributes> element contains a “scope” attribute having any value other than “Immediate”, then the Individual Request SHALL be further processed according to the processing model specified in Section 4. This processing may involve decomposing the one Individual Decision Request into other Individual Decision Requests before evaluation by the PDP.
{Optional}
This section describes use of a list of references to <Attributes> elements to construct multiple individual <Request> elements.
The following URI SHALL be used as the URI identifier for the functionality specified in this Section of this Profile. This identifier represents metadata about this specification and implementations implementing this specification. This identifier MAY be used to describe capabilities of an implementation or to make other references to this specification.
The original XACML <Request> element SHALL contain a <MultiRequests> element.
Such a request context SHALL be interpreted as multiple individual request contexts specified by references to <Attributes> elements.
The context handler MUST construct a new <Request> element for each <RequestReference> element contained in the <MultiRequests> element, and process the generated <Request> element.
Each <RequestReference> element contains one or more <AttributesReference> elements, each of which refers to the xml:id XML attribute of one of the <Attributes> elements in the enclosing original <Request> element. The generated <Request> element MUST be identical to a <Request> element which contains the referenced <Attributes> elements.
The result(s) of each such generated <Request> element MUST be included as one or more <Result> elements in the <Response> element corresponding to the original <Request> element. There may be multiple results for a single generated <Request> element when the generated <Request> element makes use of one or more of the other multiple decision request schemes in this profile. There MUST be exactly one <Response> element for the original <Request> element.
If a <RequestReference> contains an invalid reference, then the corresponding <Result> MUST contain an Indeterminate decision with status code urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:1.0:status:syntax-error.
{Optional}
A request for multiple decisions as specified by any of the schemes in section 2 MAY in addition specify that the Individual Decisions be combined into a single aggregated decision and that only this single combined decision will be returned to the PEP.
If the CombinedDecision attribute of the initial <Request> is True, then the <Response> MUST contain only a single combined decision in a single <Result> element, and the following apply to the combined decision, in the given order.
The following URI SHALL be used as the URI identifier for the functionality specified in this Section of this Profile. This identifier represents metadata about this specification and implementations implementing this specification. This identifier MAY be used to describe capabilities of an implementation or to make other references to this specification.
{Mandatory}
This profile specifies several independent schemes for Multiple Decision Requests in sections 2 and 3. Any combination of features described by these schemes MAY be used in an initial request. This section defines a normative processing model to create Individual Decision Requests from an initial request context in which one or more features of the multiple profile are present. This Profile does NOT REQUIRE that the implementation of the evaluation of a request for access to multiple decisions conform to the model below or that actual Individual Decision Requests be constructed. The Profile REQUIRES only that the <Result> elements SHALL be the same as if the model below were used. An implementation MUST produce identical results to those that would be produced by performing the following operations in the given order.
The following identifier is used as the AttributeId of a resource attribute that indicates the scope of a request for access in a single <Attributes> element of a request context.
· urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:2.0:resource:scope
The attribute SHALL have a DataType of “http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string“.
The valid values for this attribute are listed below, along with a reference to the Section of this Profile or to the core XACML specification that describes how the <Attributes> element with the resource category is to be processed. An implementation MAY support any subset of these values, including the empty set.
· “Immediate” - The <Attributes> element refers to a single non-hierarchical resource or to a single node in a hierarchical resource. This is the default value, if no “scope” attribute is present. The <Attributes> element SHALL be processed according to the core XACML specification [XACML].
· “Children” - The <Attributes> element refers to multiple resources in a hierarchy. The set of resources consists of a single node described by the “resource-id” resource attribute and of all that node's immediate children in the hierarchy. The <Attributes> element SHALL be processed according to Section 2.1 of this Profile.
· “Descendants” - The <Attributes> element refers to multiple resources in a hierarchy. The set of resources consists of a single node described by the “resource-id” resource attribute and of all that node's descendants in the hierarchy. The <Attributes> element SHALL be processed according to Section 2.1 of this Profile.
The following URI values SHALL be used as URI identifiers for the functionality specified in various Sections of this Profile. These identifiers represent metadata about this specification and implementations implementing this specification. These identifiers MAY be used to describe capabilities of an implementation or to make other references to this specification
Section 2.1: “scope attribute of “children” or “descendants” in <Attributes>: Non-XML resources
· urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:3.0:profile:multiple:scope
Section 2.2: XPath expression in “multiple:content-selector” attribute
· urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:3.0:profile:multiple:xpath-expression
Section 2.3: Multiple <Attributes> elements with repeated attribute categories
· urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:3.0:profile:multiple:repeated-attribute-categories
Section 2.4: By reference to <Attributes> elements
· urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:3.0:profile:multiple:reference
Section 3: Requests for a combined decision
· urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:3.0:profile:multiple:combined-decision
An implementation may conform to this specification in one or more of the following ways.
An implementation conforms as a processor of requests for multiple resources as nodes identified by “scope” if it is able to process XACML requests in the manner described in sections 2.1 and 4 of this specification. Conformance to this MAY be indidicated with the identifier urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:3.0:profile:multiple:scope.
An implementation conforms as a processor of requests for multiple decisions as nodes identified by XPath if it is able to process XACML requests in the manner described in sections 2.2 and 4 of this specification. Conformance to this MAY be indicated with the identifier urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:3.0:profile:multiple:xpath-expression.
An implementation conforms as a processor of requests for multiple decisions by multiple <Attributes> elements if it is able to process XACML requests in the manner described in sections 2.3 and 4 of this specification. Conformance to this MAY be indicated with the identifier urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:3.0:profile:multiple:repeated-attribute-categories.
An implementation conforms as a processor of requests for multiple decisions by references to <Attributes> elements if it is able to process XACML requests in the manner described in sections 2.4 and 4 of this specification. Conformance to this MAY be indicated with the identifier urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:3.0:profile:multiple:reference.
An implementation conforms as a processor of requests for a combined decision if it is able to process XACML requests in the manner described in section 3 and 4 of this specification. Conformance to this MAY be indicated with the identifier urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:3.0:profile:multiple:combined-decision.
The following individuals have participated in the creation of this specification and are gratefully acknowledged:
Anil Saldhana
Anil Tappetla
Anne Anderson
Anthony Nadalin
Bill Parducci
Craig Forster
David Chadwick
David Staggs
Dilli Arumugam
Duane DeCouteau
Erik Rissanen
Gareth Richards
Hal Lockhart
Jan Herrmann
John Tolbert
Ludwig Seitz
Michiharu Kudo
Naomaru Itoi
Paul Tyson
Prateek Mishra
Rich Levinson
Ronald Jacobson
Seth Proctor
Sridhar Muppidi
Tim Moses
Vernon Murdoch
Revision |
Date |
Editor |
Changes Made |
WD 1 |
Erik Rissanen |
Initial update to XACML 3.0. |
|
WD 2 |
28 Dec 2007 |
Erik Rissanen |
Update to current OASIS template. |
WD 3 |
4 Nov 2008 |
Erik Rissanen |
Define behavior for the IncludeInResult attribute. |
WD 4 |
3 Mar 2009 |
Erik Rissanen |
Added the new <MultiRequests> scheme. |
WD 5 |
|
Erik Rissanen |
Changed error behavior in <MultiRequests> Clarified some text Editorial cleanups Conformance section |
WD 6 |
14 Dec 2009 |
Erik Rissanen |
Renamed to “Multiple Decision Profile”. Clarified meaning of metadata identifiers. Remove “scope” for XML resources. Replaced scope EntireHierarchy with decision combining algorithm. Added more detailed text about nesting of schemes. |
WD 07 |
17 Dec 2009 |
Erik Rissanen |
Update acknowledgments Don’t allow obligations in combined decisions Fix formatting issues |
WD 08 |
|
Erik Rissanen |
Drop decision combining algorithms in favor of a more restricted (and safer) decision combining scheme. |
WD 09 |
12 Jan 2010 |
Erik Rissanen |
Updated cross references Fix typos and improve wording. Updated acknowledgments |
WD 10 |
8 Mar 2010 |
Erik Rissanen |
Updated cross references Fixed OASIS formatting issues |