Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) is a method of managing access to a system's resources based on roles assigned to individual users within an enterprise. This method provides fine-grained control and offers a simple way to manage permissions across a large number of users.
Here's a brief explanation of how it works:
1. **Roles**: Roles are defined according to job competency, authority, and responsibility within an organization. For example, you might have roles such as "admin", "manager", "developer", "user", etc.
2. **Users**: Each user is assigned one or more roles, and each role grants certain permissions. For example, a "user" might be able to view data, a "developer" might be able to modify that data, and an "admin" might have full control over all operations.
3. **Permissions**: Permissions define what resources a role can access and what operations it can perform. Permissions are associated with roles, and users inherit these permissions through their roles.
4. **Access Decision**: When a user tries to access a resource, the system checks the user's role and determines whether that role has the required permissions to access the resource. If the role has the necessary permissions, the system allows the user to access the resource.
This approach greatly simplifies management and auditing of user privileges. Instead of assigning permissions to each user individually, permissions are assigned to roles, and users are assigned roles, allowing administrators to manage user privileges by simply assigning appropriate roles to users.
Furthermore, RBAC can be used in combination with other access control methods such as Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) for even finer control over system resources.
