David, Anil -
I would like to bring your attention to the OpenAz project which
focuses on the creation of XACML PEP's. Currently, the project includes
Java and C++ bindings and we would welcome other bindings to languages
such as Ruby and Python. Rich Levinson and Hal Lockhart have previously
published materials to this TC describing the APIs and other essential
pragmatic materials (attribute manifest) needed to easily create XACML
PEPs in a variety of contexts.
IMHO, creating yet another protocol for PEP <--> PDP interaction
is helpful but not very important step in making XACML-style PEP
available in a variety of contexts. The PEP <--> PDP interaction
usually requires efficiency and is implemented in a variety of
different proprietary ways. There is nothing in the XACML specification
that suggests that it has to be drawn from the standard.
In our experience with real-world, enterprise class business
applications and their authorization requirements, we find that
creating a flexible model for embedding PEPs and obtaining attributes
in a variety of contexts to be much more important.
Some of the issues encounter include:
+ Training of architects and developers so that they understand the
XACML PEP interaction model.
+ How can PEPs be added to specific points in applications, middleware,
gateways and devices?
+ How can we efficiently and securely transfer identity attributes from
native run-time system (e.g., Java principals) to the authorization
system?
+ How can we expose business objects to the authorization system?
+ How can we communicate information about attributes required in
policies to other repositories, including the application at run-time?
Thanks,
prateek
OpenAz project link -
http://www.openliberty.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page#OpenAz
BANLkTinfsWAWZuq6QRM7gWjTpWebkoT0Kw@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
Regardless of communication / transport protocol and interface
definition, should we assume that what is being carried is always the
XACML request as defined in the XACML specification? If so, it
effectively discards JSON (to go to your point re. JACML :p) and a
simple PEP-PDP HTTP/GET interaction where GET parameters would be used
as simple key-value pairs.
And again back to my initial thoughts and the reasons behind this
conversation, we should make that interface as easy and simple as can
be (in addition to standard) to further facilitate XACML adoption and
help developers quickly develop PEPs to consume XACML authorizations.
So do we agree we should define a WSDL 2.0 interface? How widely
adopted is WSDL 2.0 vs. WSDL 1.1?
Cheers,
David.
On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 5:12 PM, Anil
Saldhana <Anil.Saldhana@redhat.com>
wrote:
Hi David,
please don't portray xacml to be a SOAP intensive tech. I have
heartburn with the words "soap only". We need a standardized wsdl such
that the soap side of the world can be happy. But interfaces to the PDP
does not have to be SOAP alone. I will take in any transport that can
move my xml payload (xacml request/response) from one point to
another. SOAP (with saml/xacml payloads), REST (xml over http
architecture) and plain xml over http are all possibilities.
XACML is a XML language that defines access control rules. If we want
to use json as one of the authoring means, we have to rename it to
jacml. ;)
We are just defining various mechanisms to transport the xml (xacml)
payload. Whether it is http or soap transport mechanism, that does not
take away the primary goal of xacml - to define access control
constructs.
My thoughts only.
Regards,
Anil
On 05/24/2011 04:20 PM, David Brossard wrote:
Dear all,
To summarize what's been said:
(a) naming the interface "REST" is misleading - let's drop the name.
(b) there is a need for a standard interface (transport /
communication) and not just the XACML request/response.
(c) interface standardization could be done in a profile - it's easier
than touching the XACML core and it keeps concerns clearly separated.
Today we have the SAML for XACML profile. Moving to a SOAP-only
interface would be a great step forward.
Independently of the above, would it be interesting to design /
standardize an easy-to-consume interface, something easier than what we
have today? Something more in the likes of a GET request with simple
GET parameters?
Is there a common place where we could gather requirements and ideas or
is this email thread the way to go forward?
I will be a Gluecon 2011 tomorrow and Thursday. I will try to gather
requirements from the developer community.
Cheers,
David.
On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 7:48 AM, Anil
Saldhana <Anil.Saldhana@redhat.com>
wrote:
Craig,
if you want to take the wsdl standardization task, I will support you.
Regards,
Anil
On 05/20/2011 04:55 PM, Craig R Forster wrote:
Hi all,
I agree that calling such an API a "REST" API is a misnomer.
>> So what is of interest is merely the HTTP
protocol indeed and binding the XACML request / response to GET or POST
verbs along with a potential mapping into simple HTTP request
parameters or a JSON payload.
If the payload is an XACML request in it's currently-defined XML form,
then I don't see any benefit to using HTTP POST rather than SOAP. SOAP
has better tooling, and only adds two elements as a wrapper in it's
minimal form ( <soap:Envelope> and <soap:Body>). For there
to be any benefit I think the payload would have to be JSON, in which
case we'd have to define a canonical way to represent XACML requests
and responses in JSON form.
Mapping attributes in an XACML request to individual HTTP GET
parameters seems cumbersome. I think the better approach is to define
an entire request as a JSON object and send that via whatever HTTP verb
is most applicable.
However, I think it'd be more prudent to first define a canonical WSDL
for an XACML PDP web service. The TC has been reluctant to do this in
the past, for whatever reason, and while it doesn't overlap with a JSON
over HTTP protocol I think that it's worth standardizing first.
Regards,
Craig
David Brossard
---05/20/2011 10:27:11 AM---Hi, That's true... This might be more about
exposing the PDP with the lowest
Hi,
That's true... This might be more about exposing the PDP with the
lowest possible barrier to entry - making an authorization request as
simple as can be.
Since the PDP is stateless by design, a pure REST approach is therefore
a mismatch since REST is aimed at providing support for stateful web
services.
So what is of interest is merely the HTTP protocol indeed and binding
the XACML request / response to GET or POST verbs along with a
potential mapping into simple HTTP request parameters or a JSON payload.
Cheers,
David.
On Fri, May 20, 2011 at 5:04 PM, <remon.sinnema@emc.com> wrote:
David,
From: David Brossard [mailto:david.brossard@axiomatics.com]
Sent: Friday, May 20, 2011 4:20 PM
To: xacml
Subject: [xacml] PDP REST Interface - proposal
>> Following the call yesterday, I would like to kick start some
discussions around the possibility around designing a standard REST
interface for a PDP. The idea would be to have a PEP-PDP interaction
using REST. <<
I don't see any "resources" in your
proposal. So I guess you're just talking about an HTTP interface, not
REST.
>> 2 possible methods: GET and POST
* GET
o Input: Send in a URL e.g. http://foo.bar/AuthZ/?a=value&b=value2&c=value3
o Output: the decision (the whole XACML decision? simply the decision
string e.g. "Permit"? an HTTP status code?)
o Pros: extremely easy to consume
o Cons: the request sent / response received are not valid XACML
requests / responses.
* This means a layer on the PDP side (in the
REST wrapping) needs to map from a HTTP GET parameter to a XACML
attribute
* In addition, if the response is merely a status code or a String, it
breaks the XACML standard in the sense that obligations / advice would
be lost <<
I guess you could model Decisions as HTTP
status codes:
Permit - 200 OK
Deny - 403 Forbidden
NotApplicable - 404 Not Found
Indeterminate - 500 Internal Server Error
The obligations/ advice could then be in the response body.
As for the mapping from HTTP parameters to XACML attributes, I don't
think this is a big deal. I'm assuming most implementations don't use
the XML format of the spec internally, so there has to be some sort of
mapping anyway. This new mapping seems like a fairly easy addition.
>> * POST
o Input: the entire XACML request in its XML form
o Output: the entire XACML response in its XML form
o Pros: complies with the XACML standard
o Cons: what is the benefit other than performance? It doesn't make
adoption easier <<
Since an authorization request is idempotent, I would propose PUT
instead.
>> * POST using JSON
o Input: the JSON representation of a XACML request
o Output: the JSON representation of a XACML response
o Pros: all the richness of XACML. The format is JSON which developers
seems to prefer.
o Cons: perhaps a bit too cumbersome. <<
A lot of web services these days support both XML and JSON. The former
is better for consumption by server code, while the latter is easier to
consume by a JavaScript client.
>> What are your thoughts? <<
Sounds interesting. Do you have any (potential) customers that
expressed interest in this? What are the use cases you are trying to
solve with this proposal that you can't with the current spec?
>> Do you think any standardization effort / profile definition
effort should be driven by a developer community willing to use
authorization and which would want to sacrifice the richness of XACML
for the sake of simplicity? <<
You won't lose any richness in the PUT
variant. I'm not sure about GET either, that depends on the mapping of
XACML attributes to HTTP parameters.
Thanks,
Ray
--
David Brossard, M.Eng, SCEA, CSTP
Solutions Architect
+46(0)760 25 85 75
Axiomatics AB
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