What is dynamic authorization and why is it important?

Safeguarding sensitive information and ensuring that only authorized individuals have access to specific resources is critical. In this blog we will introduce you to the concept of dynamic authorization—a modern approach to controlling who can access what, when, and under what conditions.

Read on to understand how dynamic authorization works, why it’s essential for modern, distributed systems like microservices, and how it differs from traditional methods like Role-Based Access Control (RBAC). By the end, you’ll also see how Cerbos, a flexible authorization solution, can help streamline and strengthen your authorization processes.

What is dynamic authorization

Dynamic authorization is an approach to controlling access within systems with complex requirements. Unlike static authorization methods, which rely on predefined rules and roles defined at admin-time, dynamic authorization makes access decisions in real-time, allowing for flexible, context-driven permissions that adapt to the specifics of each access request at run-time. This approach is particularly well-suited to modern requirements, where different users or services require different levels of access to resources across systems.

At its core, dynamic authorization is built to accommodate changing conditions, subjects (human identity or workload), and resource attributes. In traditional applications, authorization often remains tightly coupled with the business logic, a structure that can become cumbersome as applications grow in size and complexity.

Benefits of dynamic authorization

Dynamic authorization offers enhanced security by evaluating access requests at run-time, taking into account contextual factors like user role, location, device type, and time of access as well as the state and attributes of the object that is being accessed. This approach ensures that only authorized individuals can access sensitive resources when it is intended to be accessed.

The key advantage of dynamic authorization is its flexibility and scalability. As organizations grow and evolve, so do their user roles, security policies, and access control requirements. Dynamic authorization adapts to these changes, ensuring that the system remains effective regardless of the organization’s complexity. This adaptability makes it well-suited for dynamic environments where traditional static authorization models may struggle to keep up. For example, in a banking use case, the rules around who can approve a loan may be controlled based on the loan amount. Having an admin-time-defined loan approver role won’t work as the amount needs to be checked on a per-request basis before making a decision. Furthermore, this could also do additional checks to ensure that the user is in a branch on a corporate network rather than working remotely on an unsanctioned device. These contextual and environmental factors are only possible with dynamic authorization.

Henry Arnold, CTO and Co-Founder of Nook, Cerbos user:

"For the business owner, they now can control the amount of responsibility they want to give to external accountants, which is incredibly powerful for us and incredibly powerful for the accountants. We have a payroll product, we obviously don't want everyone in the business to see what their payroll is, so we restrict access to that. Including, we have a bank transaction feed, so we limit it. While some people can see the bank transaction feed, they can't necessarily see the payroll numbers."

Finally, dynamic authorization helps organizations meet their compliance obligations more effectively. By enabling fine-grained access control, companies can enforce policies that align with data protection laws and regulatory requirements. This capability not only strengthens security but also simplifies audits and reporting, ensuring that organizations remain compliant while reducing the administrative burden.

Real-world scenarios where dynamic authorization is invaluable

It is important to mention that while dynamic authorization is a great modern approach, the most effective authorization mechanisms are not only dynamic, but declarative and decoupled as well.

Best practices for implementing dynamic authorization

Here are some best practices to follow when implementing dynamic authorization, to make sure your system is secure, scalable, and easy to maintain.

1. Take a policy-based access control approach to keep authorization logic centrally defined and auditable.
2. Adopt the principle of least privilege in the policies, which only grants users the minimum access necessary to perform their tasks, reducing the risk of unauthorized access.
3. Externalize (decouple) the authorization logic from your business logic by leveraging a Policy Decision Point to evaluate policies. That will make it easier to update or fine-tune rules and permissions without risking unintended side effects on your application’s core code.

Implementing dynamic authorization with Cerbos

Cerbos is a scalable, externalized authorization solution designed to simplify the implementation and management of user permissions and access control. With Cerbos, you can implement dynamic authorization by defining policies that interrogate various attributes and contextual information, which are evaluated at run-time to enforce your organization's security requirements. This approach not only enhances security but also improves the flexibility and maintainability of your authorization system.

Learn how to get started with Cerbos.

Conclusion

Dynamic authorization offers a modern and adaptable approach to run-time access control, addressing the limitations of traditional static admin-time models, and enhancing security, flexibility, and scalability.

Whether you’re building a new application or modernizing an existing one, Cerbos provides a robust and reliable solution for dynamic authorization. Explore how Cerbos can help with your authorization needs.