Applying quorum role in network management

This work presents a proposal for extending the Role-Based Access control (RBAC) model to support activities that demand runtime mutability in their authorization attributes. Such activities cannot be subdivided in a set of subtasks executed sequentially neither can be accomplished by a single role. The approach presented allows the creation of quorum roles, which can only be activated in a session with the endorsement of a quorum of other roles. A prototype illustrates the application of our proposal in a network management scenario. In the illustrative scenario, a previously defined set of roles, by endorsement, activates a quorum role to perform a management task without the participation of the network administrator role.