A logical framework for reasoning about delegation policies in workflow management systems

Khaled Gaaloul (1, 2) , Erik H.A. Proper (2) , Ehtesham Zahoor (1) , François Charoy (1) , Claude Godart (1)

1 SCORE - Services and Cooperation
2 CRP Henri Tudor

Task delegation presents one of the business process security leitmotifs. It defines a mechanism that bridges the gap between workflow and access control systems. Delegation completion and authorisation enforcement are specified under specific constraints so-called events. In this article, we aim to reason about delegation events to model task delegation and to specify delegation policies using a logical framework. To that end, we propose an event-based task delegation model to control the delegation execution. We then identify relevant events responsible for the dynamic enforcement of delegation policies. Further, we define a task-oriented access control model to specify delegation constraints into authorisation policies. Finally, we propose a technique to automate the delegation policies integration. Using event calculus, we develop a reasoning tool to control the delegation execution and to increase the compliance of all delegation changes in the existing policy of the workflow.

Mots clés: reasoning tools; workflow management; task delegation; access control; authorisation policy; event calculus; business process security; reasoning tools.

Domaines: Réseaux et télécommunications [cs.NI]

Khaled Gaaloul, Erik H.A. Proper, Ehtesham Zahoor, François Charoy, Claude Godart. A logical framework for reasoning about delegation policies in workflow management systems. International Journal of Information and Computer Security, 2011, 4 (4), pp.365-388. ⟨10.1504/IJICS.2011.044825⟩. ⟨hal-00677854⟩