A generic model for delegation in security policies

Abstract

Delegation is the process whereby a user can assign his authorizations to another user. This feature is necessary in today's communication networks principally because it allows the interaction between the entities composing such networks. This paper aims to give a first step toward a framework allowing to, formally, model delegation. Hence, we propose an extension of a previously proposed model by adding delegation and specially handling most of the delegation properties which we find in the literature. For this purpose, we model a delegation request based on two types: the grant and the transfer. We also propose an adapted verification process completing the delegation process. Finally, we discuss the revocation of delegations according to three schemes.