Any kind of policies in a request

[Erik Rissanen <erik@axiomatics.com>]

David,

I have been thinking more about this.

I think that an extension point to plug in any kind of policy format 
does not belong in the XACML core schema, and thus not in the <Request>. 
The XACML schema is for defining the XACML language, and we would lose 
some of the benefits of standardization by allowing any content in it.

However, SAML defined in the past a protocol for AuthZ query/response. 
It is my understanding, and please correct me if I am wrong, that there 
was an agreement between the SAML and XACML TCs that the XACML request 
schema would supersede the SAML AuthZ formats, and SAML dropped their 
own. The original SAML protocol was ambiguous regarding the policy language.

If we think of the XACML SAML profile to carry the legacy of the 
original SAML AuthZ protocol, than I guess it would make sense to 
support other policy languages since the original protocol was not XACML 
specific.

What do the rest of the TC see as the scope of the XACML SAML profile? 
Is it just about supporting XACML, or does it have a wider scope?

Best regards,
Erik

David Chadwick wrote:
> Subsequent to the minutes
>
> Rich.Levinson wrote:
>
>>
>> Proposed schema change for policies and discussion from
>>  David Chadwick and response from Erik:
>>   http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xacml/200911/msg00023.html
>>
>>    Erik: David proposed req ctx schema for ext pts xml any, where
>>     can put proprietary policy lang things; doesn't make sense
>>     to std on any policies in fmt; suggest using saml/xacml
>>     mechanism
>>    Rich: sees it as potentially disruptive, effectively allowing
>>     elements as children of PolicySet
>>    Bill: proprietary elements don't make sense; need further info
>>     to be considered;
>>
>>     defer topic until more info from David addressing concerns
>>      in email and minutes
>>
>
> It makes sense because we cannot assume that every PDP talks the XACML 
> policy language. However, it is possible to make every PDP talk the 
> XACML request/response context. Once we have sticky policies and 
> obligations which we pass around a distributed system we need to be 
> able to cater for multiple policy languages. If you see my 
> presentation at W3C yesterday at
>
> http://www.w3.org/2009/policy-ws/slides/Chadwick.pdf
>
> and look at slide 5 from 11, you will see why we need to relax the 
> schema requirements on the policy element in the SAML-XACML profile, 
> otherwise we have no standard way of passing a sticky policy to an 
> AIPEP or Master PDP.
>
> regards
>
> David
>
>
>
>
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