WSACd - A Usable Access Control Framework for Smart Home Devices

Computing devices already permeate working and living environments; a trend which is expected to intensify in the coming years. However, the direct interaction smart devices often have with the physical world, along with the processing, storage and communication of private sensitive data pertaining to users’ lives, bring security concerns into the limelight. This paper presents Web Service Access Control for devices (WSACd), a framework that combines access control provided by the eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML) with the benefits of Service Oriented Architectures through the use of the Devices Profile for Web Services (DPWS). Based on standardized technologies, it enables fine-grained policy-based management of the heterogeneous embedded devices that may be found in a smart residential setting. The proposed framework is implemented in full and its performance is evaluated on a test-bed featuring devices expected to be found in a typical residential environment.