Current Research and Open Problems in Attribute-Based Access Control

Attribute-based access control (ABAC) is a promising alternative to traditional models of access control (i.e., discretionary access control (DAC), mandatory access control (MAC), and role-based access control (RBAC)) that is drawing attention in both recent academic literature and industry application. However, formalization of a foundational model of ABAC and large scale adoption is still in its infancy. The relatively recent emergence of ABAC still leaves a number of problems unexplored. Issues like delegation, administration, auditability, scalability, hierarchical representations, and the like, have been largely ignored or left to future work. This article provides a basic introduction to ABAC and a comprehensive review of recent research efforts toward developing formal models of ABAC. A taxonomy of ABAC research is presented and used to categorize and evaluate surveyed articles. Open problems are identified based on the shortcomings of the reviewed works and potential solutions discussed.