Software Quality Research Library

The objective of this document is to provide the reader with useful information about designing and creating a Role Based Access Control system (RBAC). An RBAC system provides three types of features: Authentication, Authorization and Audit:

• Authentication: This confirms the user's identity: It consists of checking the identity of the user of your application. Actually, this is a two step process: First, identification, which consists of stating who you are; and then authentication, which consists of proving who you are. This is usually done via user accounts and passwords. This is the first level of security.
• Authorization: Authorizations define what a user can do in an application: Basically, you define what the user is allowed to see, do and modify in the application.
• Audit: Keep track of sensitive transactions in the application: You may need auditing features to comply with business rules specific to your company, with legal requirements like SOX or certification processes like ISO.