Managing access control via Active Directory can be a perilous process for any IT administrator. It鈥檚 too easy to fall behind in user lifecycle management or mistakenly overprovision users, which is a caveat anyone who鈥檚 used nested groups understands. This legacy approach doesn鈥檛 make user-based determinations and demands administrative overhead.
Attribute-based access control (ABAC), however, works differently: it provides an instant cross-check of users within a group to the apps and resources they need. ABAC is, by nature, a better match for today鈥檚 threat environment than legacy directory access controls, which is beneficial in an era when Zero Trust principles demand greater diligence. Nested groups had their time and place, but are no longer necessary (or even desirable) if your organization is living in a SaaS-based environment.
What is Attribute-based Access Control?
ABAC is a method of granting and managing user access to IT resources to support environments that require more contextual awareness than simple user-centric parameters such as their assigned role. Used by cloud providers and identity and access management (IAM) solutions, ABAC is being used all around us to bring order to IAM chaos, which can include:
- Safeguarding apps, databases, and file servers by taking account attributes such as department, location, manager, time of the day, and other helpful parameters in account when granting or denying access
- Securing microservices/APIs so that sensitive transactions aren鈥檛 accidentally exposed
- Efficiently achieving stringent regulatory compliance requirements
- Controlling network firewalls dynamically by making policy decisions on a per-user basis
Older access control methods such as role-based access control (RBAC) would only consider if an employee has the corresponding rights within a given system to access it. Active Directory (and even Azure Active Directory) maintains a similar posture as traditional RBAC, where group membership determines access rights. What鈥檚 more, groups can be nested within groups, which without management can violate Zero Trust principles when trust is intrinsic within the access control model itself.
That鈥檚 a stark contrast with ABAC, which would essentially provide a 鈥渇irewall鈥� of intelligent decision making to protect access to IT resources. It applies an 鈥渋f/then鈥� logic that determines the risk that鈥檚 presented by a user at a given time. For example, it could prevent access to an application deemed 鈥渉igh value鈥� by an employee who is authorized to access it but is away on vacation and using unsecured public Wi-Fi at a coffee shop to do so.
The ability to apply these conditions to group membership drives IT efficiency and delivers more proactive security controls.
How 黑料海角91入口 Applies ABAC to Group Management
In general, ABAC applies business logic to group members by using attributes as conditions of group membership, which creates distinct advantages over legacy group management approaches. While the ABAC model typically performs dynamic mapping, 黑料海角91入口庐 instead applies logic by suggesting appropriate membership to user groups, which admins ultimately have control over. Learn more in this access control case study.
黑料海角91入口 has taken the best of ABAC and applied it to the creation and maintenance of groups. That鈥檚 a necessity given 黑料海角91入口 manages access to many different types of endpoints across a variety of platforms. ABAC examines users鈥� attributes before granting users access to services, and the platform can even automatically suggest membership status and keep pace with changes such as a transfer to a different department or manager.
You can think of 黑料海角91入口鈥檚 as something that defines conditions for membership and assists admins in governing access within and downstream of 黑料海角91入口. Updates are suggested to be made live in production based upon attributes such as 鈥渄epartment,鈥� 鈥渢itle,鈥� or any number of custom attributes, depending upon the application you鈥檙e managing access to. User attributes, such as a manager, populate the 鈥渋f,鈥� but conditional access attributes, such as geolocation, determine what happens next.
The platform can even designate certain permissions for a subset of users and provide elevated access so that specific applications remain off limits to other group members without any intervention by IT admins. These features automate the task of creating and maintaining groups and avoids overprovisioning, which is a concern within Active Directory (e.g., when groups age out, or when users are only intended to be part-time members, or nested group accidents that could inadvertently expose sensitive information throughout your organization).
How ABAC Plays a Role In Enhancing Security and Compliance
Conditional access policies, which use parameters like device, network, and even geolocation to guard access to IT resources, add additional security provisions on top of ABAC, which benefit from the group maintenance our suggestions provide. ABAC works in tandem with conditional access so that attributes 鈥渄ecorate鈥� users and distinctly map them to the appropriate group memberships to make suggestions for group management.
黑料海角91入口 also provides a method to audit access that has business rules and policy-driven decision making baked in. For example, when a user is determined to be in violation of a condition of group membership, their membership is updated to reflect that new rule (or whether an exception was made). Auditing and compliance weren鈥檛 the primary motivation behind how we designed group management, but the platform makes performing an audit much easier due to its Zero Trust architecture.
Groups are consistently looking at the user鈥檚 attributes to determine who should have access to a resource and remain a member. SCIM provisioning has made it even easier to synchronize and manage identities for web apps to automate account creation and deletions for a more complete approach to user lifecycle management.
This short tutorial video describes how 黑料海角91入口 does this:
Leaving the Nest
It鈥檚 been over two decades since Active Directory was introduced to solve the problem of managing users and devices within a network domain. Nested groups made access control easy to implement using a parent/child hierarchy, with inherited permissions for subgroups. Some IT admins find this model endearing; however, mistakes happen and an employee or group that erroneously becomes a member in one place could obtain potentially unauthorized access elsewhere. IT admins become the line of defense between security and overprovisioning and must actively audit groups and user lifecycles.
Even Microsoft recognizes the importance of ABAC and has implemented it within several products, but under its own proprietary terms. Active Directory, however, still uses nested groups and has extended the legacy feature to its Azure Active Directory IAM services on the web. Twenty years is a long time, and a lot has changed. within the cybersecurity landscape as well as the traditional client/server environment. Microsoft鈥檚 IAM solutions maintain heavy dependence on outdated concepts such as nested groups that aren鈥檛 designed for modern SSO nor Zero Trust security models that secure remote work.
The ongoing challenges of enabling work from anywhere dictate a better methodology, such as ABAC. The time is now for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to move to a cloud directory that uses ABAC, conditional access, and an approach that can manage secure access to all IT resources.
Try 黑料海角91入口
Zero Trust is inherent in how 黑料海角91入口 manages groups without the administrative overhead of nested groups. The drawbacks of Microsoft鈥檚 legacy may be a bit oversimplified, and a proven solution will have its defenders, but you don鈥檛 know what you鈥檙e missing until you try something new. 黑料海角91入口 is free for 10 users and 10 devices with complimentary 24×7 live chat support for the first ten days following your account鈥檚 creation. Birds must leave the 鈥渘est鈥� before they can fly.
