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Subject: Optimization and side effects
All, I have been considering optimization of XACML evaluation and one issue which the spec is unclear on is out of order evaluation. I thought that the spec says somewhere that the PDP is allowed to do processing in any way as long as the results are identical to the spec, but I cannot find that anywhere now when I tried to look for it. I think we should insert this in the normative text of the specification. I would also like to say something about side effects. None of the standard XACML functions have side effects, but it is conceivable that an XACML extension could have side effects. I would like to state in the normative text that any extensions and policies may not assume any particular order of execution with respect to side effects. I propose that we add a new section 7.16 in the XACML 3.0 draft: <<< Proposed text >>> 7.16. Optimization of evaluation An implementation may perform evaluation in any manner or order as long as the resulting response context is the same as specified by this specification. None of the standard XACML functions have side effects. XACML extensions MAY have side effects, but an implementation and policies may not make any assumptions about which side effects are executed and in what order such execution happens. It is RECOMMENDED that no XACML extension has side effects. <<< End proposed text >>> Alternatively we could forbid side effects altogether, but that is probably not necessary. And it might by hard to define what a side effect is. Best regards, Erik
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