Access Control Models

Access control is a part of the security of information technologies. Access control regulates the access requests to system resources. The access control logic is formalized in models. Many access control models exist. They vary in their design, components, policies and areas of application. With the developing of information technologies, more complex access control models have been created. This paper is concerned with overview and analysis for a number of access control models. First, an overview of access control models is presented. Second, they are analyzed and compared by a number of parameters: storing the identity of the user, delegation of trust, fine-grained policies, flexibility, object-versioning, scalability, using time in policies, structure, trustworthiness, workflow control, areas of application etc. Some of these parameters describe the access control models, while other parameters are important characteristics and components of these models. The results of the comparative analysis are presented in tables. Prospects of development of new models are specified.