Ask an Axiomatics Expert: Top 10 Authorization FAQs Answered

Role-based access control (RBAC) grants access based on predefined roles, while attribute-based access control (ABAC) evaluates attributes about users, resources, actions, and environmental conditions. ABAC provides greater flexibility and helps eliminate the need for excessive role creation.

No. Policy-driven authorization uses roles as one of many attributes in an access decision, alongside factors such as user characteristics, resource sensitivity, location, and risk. By evaluating these conditions at runtime, organizations can simplify and reduce the number of roles needed while achieving more precise, context-aware access control.

Policy-driven authorization evaluates access requests in real time using attributes and contextual information. This limits unnecessary access, reduces standing privileges, and helps contain compromised accounts.

Access control is the foundation of a Zero Trust strategy. While authentication verifies who a user or identity is, access control determines what they can do once inside.

In a Zero Trust model, access control is dynamic and policy-driven, evaluating contextual factors before granting or maintaining access. This ensures that every request is verified in real time, limiting permissions to the minimum necessary and preventing lateral movement across systems. Without fine-grained, context-aware access control, the “never trust, always verify” principle of Zero Trust cannot be fully achieved.

No. Policy-driven authorization complements existing IGA and access management solutions. Identity providers and access management authenticate users, IGA governs identity lifecycles and access reviews, and policy-driven authorization makes runtime access decisions based on centralized policies and current context.