Compiled Labelled Deductive Systems for Access Control

This paper proposes a Compiled Labelled Deductive System, called ACCLDS, for reasoning about role-based access control in distributed systems, which builds upon Massacci’s tableau system for role-based access control. The ACCLDS system overcomes some of the limitations of Massaci’s approach by combining its multi-modal propositional language with a labelling algebra that allows reasoning explicitly about dynamic properties of the accessibility relations. This combined feature, which is typical of the Compiled Labelled Deductive framework, facilitates a sound and complete, and more natural ACCLDS reasoning mechanism than Massacci’s sound and only partially complete tableau system. Limitations of the usefulness of Massacci’s multi-modal logic in formalising access control systems are also discussed, showing that they relate to the initial formulation of Abadi’s calculus for access control. Solutions for overcoming these limitations are briefly proposed within the context of the ACCLDS system.