RBAC-Based Secure Interoperation Using Constraint Logic Programming

Secure interoperation is an increasingly important issue for large-scale enterprise applications. In this paper, we investigate, through constraint logic programming (CLP), secure interoperation in collaborating environments which employ role-based access control (RBAC) policies. In particular, we propose two types of interoperation, permission-based and the role-based secure interoperation, both formulated in CLP. Since a wide range of conflicts that may arise during interoperation, we also present corresponding rules for conflict resolution. By allowing permission-based and role-based interoperation, our framework enables flexible secure interoperation configuration. The proposed permission-based and the role-based secure interoperation are a pair of complementary approaches. With specification of secure interoperation in CLP, formal analysis and reasoning can be performed on RBAC-based secure interoperation.