Blockchain for Access Control Systems

Hu, Vincent

doi:https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.IR.8403-draft

NISTIR 8403 (Draft)

Obsoleted on May 26, 2022 by NISTIR 8403.

Blockchain for Access Control Systems

Date Published: December 20, 2021
Comments Due: February 7, 2022 (public comment period is CLOSED)
Email Questions to: ir8403-comments@nist.gov

Author(s)

Vincent Hu (NIST)

Announcement

Protecting system resources against unauthorized access is the primary objective of an access control system. As information systems rapidly evolve, the need for advanced access control mechanisms that support decentralization, scalability, and trust–all major challenges for traditional mechanisms–has grown.

Blockchain technology offers high confidence and tamper resistance implemented in a distributed fashion without a central authority, which means that it can be a trustable alternative for enforcing access control policies. This document presents analyses of blockchain access control systems from the perspectives of properties, components, architectures, and model supports, as well as discussions on considerations for implementation.

NOTE: A call for patent claims is included on page iv of this draft. For additional information, see the Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) Patent Policy--Inclusion of Patents in ITL Publications.

Abstract

The rapid development and wide application of distributed network systems have made network security – especially access control and data privacy – ever more important. Blockchain technology offers features such as decentralization, high confidence, and tamper-resistance, which are advantages to solving auditability, resource consumption, scalability, central authority, and trust issues – all of which are challenges for network access control by traditional mechanisms. This document presents general information for blockchain access control systems from the views of blockchain system properties, components, functions, and supports for access control policy models. Considerations for implementing blockchain AC systems are also included.

Keywords

access control; blockchain; authorization; ABAC; policy

Control Families

None selected

Documentation

Publication:
NISTIR 8403 (Draft) (DOI)
Local Download

Supplemental Material:
None available

Document History:
12/20/21: NISTIR 8403 (Draft)
05/26/22: NISTIR 8403 (Final)

Topics

Security and Privacy
access authorization; access control

Technologies
blockchain