Role-Based Access Control Implementation: A Detailed Guide

Whether it’s your network, an application, or part of your internal document management system, role-based access control (RBAC) implementation can act as a first line of defense. No one other than the authorized users will be able to access resources. It creates and promotes security, transparency, and accountability.

RBAC has become an essential security measure for enterprises of all sizes and niches today. Without access controls, organizations risk data breaches and malware, which can be costly. The average cost of a data breach has reached a jaw-dropping $4.45 million.

In this article we’ll take a closer look at RBAC, advise the best practices when implementing it across your organization, challenges that you might face, and more.

Understanding Role-Based Access Control

First off, what is role based access control?

Role-based access control, or RBAC, is a security practice that restricts access based on an individual user’s role. It limits access so users can only access the information they need to perform their jobs.

As roles in organizations vary, so does the information, data, and documents they need. RBAC essentially ensures sensitive or critical information, systems, applications, or files don’t end up in the wrong hands. In other words, employees who don’t need access to sensitive information can be prevented from getting access.

RBAC is a necessary security strategy as it prevents unauthorized access from within the organization. Modern enterprises aren’t only under threat from external attackers but also from inside threats.

An error, or poor judgment from an employee can compromise important data, which, in turn, can become a compliance issue. Implementing RBAC in enterprise networks and applications mitigates internal threats and increases accountability by tracking who accessed what and when.

In an RBAC framework, there are three main components:

• Roles: These are user roles based on several factors, such as level in job hierarchy, responsibilities, and authorizations.
• Permissions: The permissions define the level of access a person has to a system or resource within the enterprise.
• Policies: Policies define the RBAC principles, including roles and permissions, and how they will be implemented, reviewed, and changed.

Preparing for RBAC Implementation

A sound RBAC implementation requires preparation, which involves assessing current security provisions and measures, setting objectives, and creating a plan. The implementation may vary based on enterprise size, structure, and industry. It also depends on the technology architecture and stack. Businesses may need to deploy the RBAC system for their on-premise network, cloud, and/or business applications.

Here’s how to go about preparing for RBAC implementation:

• Conduct a Security Audit: Assess the current security measures and mechanisms for access controls. Identify systems and applications that don’t yet have any sort of access limitations. Similarly, assess how access within the network is granted to various users. Assemble a report that lists the inventory of your systems and assets, for example, physical infrastructure, on-premise or cloud applications, databases, files, and documents. This will help identify gaps in access security and areas for improvement.
• Define Clear Objectives: List the goals you plan to achieve with RBAC implementation in terms of security, efficiency, and ease. Essentially, any security goals related to role-based access should align with your overall security policies, including any standards or regulations it’s required to comply with.
• Develop an Implementation Plan: Create a step-by-step plan for creating and implementing an organization-wide role-based access model and policy. In a large enterprise, this process may involve allocating resources and assigning responsibilities. As not every enterprise has the technical expertise to implement such measures, you may need to outsource the job or acquire out-of-the-box solutions for implementing RBAC.

Steps to Implement Role-Based Access Control

Here’s a detailed step-by-step guide that will be relevant to most modern organizations:

Step 1: Identify and Define Roles

The first step is identifying and defining roles, which are usually based on the organizational hierarchy of positions. The higher the position, the more access privileges the employee may need or have.

Roles should be defined based on job scope and responsibilities. While in policy, these roles may be simple, in practice, they may differ depending on the team and the system or application they’re using.

Some workflows may involve different teams, which requires team members to share resources and applications. Any dependencies in intra-department workflows should be defined.

For a more granular implementation, define roles for each system or application. For example, the roles for sales software access should be separate from roles for a company-wide database, as not every employee needs sales data.

Step 2: Assign Permissions

Once the roles are defined, it’s time to set the permissions for those roles. Ideally, you should set these permissions based on the principle of least privilege. It means giving permissions that are absolutely essential for an employee to do their job.

For example, an employee from the sales department may have permission to view financial data in order to track the spending of customers. However, they may not have permission to alter financial data. On the other hand, the accounts team would need permission to add or modify financial data.

Step 3: Implement Role Hierarchies

Hierarchical RBAC creates a series of roles where one role inherits the permissions of the role below it and adds more. For instance, a sales manager will inherit the same permissions as a sales associate but also have more permissions according to their position in the hierarchy and job functions.

This will also make the implementation easier, whether you take a top-down or bottom-up approach. Developers don’t need to program all these permissions manually; they can simply duplicate and add more. For instance, they can create grouped permissions for one role and include them for the role directly above it and add more permissions, instead of adding all the permissions separately.

Step 4: Develop Access Control Policies

This is a crucial step as the implementation and execution of role-based access depends on the policy. The policy essentially puts roles and their permissions into words, defining the various terms. It also maps the different roles and associated permissions with different systems or applications used within the enterprise. Some enterprises may choose to create a uniform policy for the entire organization, which can be easy to implement but not the most efficient given the complex nature of some jobs.

The policy should also dictate how roles and permissions will be activated should an employee move up or down the hierarchy or leave the organization. Similarly, arrangements for temporary permissions should be defined, should a role need them (how they can attain them and for how long).

Step 5: Deploy RBAC System

It’s time to deploy RBAC based on the defined policy. Deployment of RBAC is often deployed across:

• Databases
• Systems (for example, ERM, CRM, ECS, or DMS)
• Apps

The deployment will vary depending on the system or app and the RBAC architecture. For instance, some enterprise software systems have built-in access control features, which are easy to utilize. On the other hand, if you’re using proprietary systems, you may need to code and configure role-based access security.

For databases, there are two ways to set access controls. The first is limiting read or write functions to specific roles. The other is creating custom queries for those roles, only allowing them access to the query’s results.

It’s also possible to integrate access controls in one system with another. Through APIs and technologies like Single Sign-On (SSO), the same roles and permissions can be deployed for various independent, but linked applications.

MST’s eViewer readily integrates with enterprise content management systems for RBAC implementation. Admins or managers can set document view, edit, and share permissions for roles defined for ECM access. This way, only authorized personnel can view a document, edit it, or share it with a third party.

Step 6: Test and Validate

Once everything is set up, it’s time to conduct tests to ensure the RBAC is working as expected. Log in to different systems with accounts of different permission levels to validate their access and permissions and ensure that they align with the defined policies.

Look for any loopholes or vulnerabilities that a role may have. For instance, an employee may have editing permissions when they should only have the ability to read a document.

Identify the gaps and bugs in the RBAC implementation and fix them as soon as possible.

Step 7: Monitor and Maintain

Conduct access monitoring and ensure all activities are logged. Carry out periodic audits and, when an incident occurs, identify areas for improvement in access controls. As business requirements evolve and role responsibilities change, change permissions to reflect that.

Best Practices for RBAC Implementation

Now that you have a better ideas about implementing RBAC, here are the best practices to ensure it goes smoothly and you achieve the desired objectives:

• Implement the Principle of Least Privilege: Grant users only the minimum necessary permissions to perform their job functions, reducing the potential impact of a security breach.
• Automate Role Assignment and Management: Streamline the process of assigning and modifying roles through automation, so roles can be assigned or updated quickly without interfering with productivity.
• Regularly Audit and Monitor Access: Continuously review user access privileges, identify anomalies, and revoke unnecessary permissions to mitigate risks. Conduct a policy review annually as part of an overall security policy review to implement necessary changes based on findings from the audit.
• Provide Training and Awareness: Educate users about the importance of RBAC and how to manage their access privileges securely.
• Ensure Scalability: Design the RBAC system to accommodate future growth and changes in user roles and permissions. If programming it in-house, ensure that it can be integrated with third-party applications now and in the future.

Common Challenges and Solutions in RBAC Implementation

There are certain hurdles you may encounter and pitfalls you will want to avoid when implementing access-based controls across your enterprise:

• Challenge 1: Role Explosion
  Setting roles can be challenging for some enterprises because of the sheer number of employees. Although employees may have varying designations, their access requirements may be the same.The solution is role consolidation, so you don’t have an unbearably long list of roles. Permissions can be placed with more granular access limitations. So, go easy with the role assignment and use more generalized appointments.
• Challenge 2: Over-Assignment of Permissions
  Unlike job roles in a hierarchy, permissions require a greater level of detail. Giving roles permissions they don’t need goes against the very purpose of RBAC. Review and refine permissions as you go. Make arrangements for temporary permissions if need be.
• Challenge 3: Resistance to Change
  RBAC implementation can result in changes that employees may find hard to embrace. However, any resistance to change can be countered with training and education. Also, don’t make it too hard for employees to access the basic tools or information they need to do their jobs.
• Challenge 4: Integration with Existing Systems
  If you’re working with legacy systems, integrating their access with RBAC systems can be difficult. You may need to develop specialized APIs to realize this objective.

How MST Supports RBAC Implementation

MST offers an easy-to-use document viewing solution, eViewer, built on HTML5, JavaScript, and Angular technologies. It readily accommodates a role-based access model and allows admins to set up user rights and privileges for documents access as well as inherits user rights from ECM and DMS solutions.

For example, enterprises using eViewer can designate which users are allowed read-only access and which users can modify documents, such as those in DOC or PDF formats. They can also define privileges such as downloading and forwarding, so not all users may be able to download or share a document. This makes it easier to protect sensitive documents, such as financial reports, patents, or those with personally identifiable information.

With features like auto-redaction and document manipulation, enterprises can further protect information from misuse. Users with lower-level permissions or those from outside can be given access to redacted documents that don’t contain any sensitive information.

With RBAC and other security features, the eViewer makes compliance a breeze. Plus, it readily integrates with industry-leading ECM and DMS products, as well as any other systems through exposed API functionality.

Whether you’re working with Word or PDF documents, the eViewer supports hundreds of file formats. It implements role-based access management by integrating with existing systems so that their user roles can be used to define access to documents on the eViewer.

Conclusion

Role-based access control implementation requires careful planning, assessment, and policy-making before you can even begin with deployment. Considerations and potential obstacles also include the organization’s size and tech stack. This makes due diligence before, during, and after all the more important when implementing an RBAC system.

Make RBAC a cornerstone of your security policy. Ensure any systems or tools you add to your enterprise tech stack support role-based access models. Although its implementation requires resources and time, it helps heighten your security and can prevent possible data breaches and reputational damage.

If you’re looking for a document viewer with built-in role-based access controls, look no further than MST. Contact us today and learn more!