Supporting Secure Embedded Access Control Policy with XACML+XML Security

XACML has become the de facto standard for expressing access control policy. Similarly, XML security standards, such as XML encryption and XML digital signature, have been widely deployed for protecting the confidentiality, authenticity and integrity of digital information. In this paper we present a framework of using XACML and XML security to support secure, embedded and fine-grained access control policy. The basic idea is to extend XACML such that access control policy can be embedded with the digital content in the same XACML document. The original content can be further divided into multiple parts, each of which is encapsulated by its own access control policy. The integrated XACML policy and content document is further protected using XML encryption and digital signature. This framework and associated security methods are designed to facilitate the protection, management and sharing of sensitive information.