Using SESAME to implement role based access control in Unix file systems

Abstract

Computer networks and assets have become a very valuable resource for modern companies. Securing these resources is thus vital for their survival. Enterprises nowadays want to have their organizational structure mirrored into their security policy. Role based access control (RBAC) has proven to be an essential tool in this process. Although Microsoft based systems have acquired a large part of the market, it seems that the old but very reliable Unix is getting a boost as well. Unfortunately, standard Unix does not implement RBAC. In this paper a solution to this problem is described that uses the Novell SESAME security architecture. To this end the paper introduces a new RBAC model.