Abstract:
XML, a self-describing and semi-structured data format, is becoming
a standard to represent and exchange data between applications across the Web.
XML repositories are also starting to be used either to store data or as an
interoperability layer for legacy applications and data sources. The widespread
lise of XML highlights the need for flexible access control models for XML
documents to protect sensitive and valuable information from unauthorised
access. This paper presents a novel declarative access control model and
elaborates how this model allows the expression of access control rules in
XML. The paper further introduces the operational semantics of the model by
describing the Xplorer engine which supports search-browse-navigate activities
on XML repositories. Xplorer takes as inputs XML-based data schema, instance
data and access control rules to auto-generate an access control-enabled Web
application in accordance with these rules.
