A request-driven secure interoperation framework in loosely-coupled multi-domain environments employing RBAC policies

Yue Zhang, James B. D. Joshi

Abstract: Multi-domain environments where distributed multiple organizations interoperate with each other are becoming a reality as witnessed by emerging Internet-based enterprise applications. Ensuring secure interoperation in such multi-domain environments has drawn considerable research works in the past, especially in tightly coupled, federated environments. However, methods applied to such environments are not suitable in emerging loosely-coupled environments where the inter-domain interactions are transient and based on specific requirements within a given context (e.g., time, location), which is typical in web service, P2P and Grid-based applications. In this paper, we propose a request-driven secure interoperation framework to facilitate secure interoperation in loosely-coupled environments where the individual domains employ role-based access control policies. In particular, our proposed framework is driven by the service requirements and dynamically integrates relevant policy components between interacting domains.