Windows claims-based access rules
Active Roles introduces claims-based authorization rules (access rules) to allow or deny access to Active Directory objects depending on the attributes of the identity attempting to access those objects. Built on the concept of Dynamic Access Control (DAC), this feature enables Active Roles to recognize and evaluate the attribute-based claims of the identity that requests access to data held in Active Directory.
Access rules improve access control management for Active Directory administration. With access rules, Active Roles adds more flexibility and precision in delegating control of Active Directory objects, such as users, computers or groups, through the use of claims—that is, Active Directory user and computer properties—in the Active Roles authorization model.
By using access rules, you can control access to Active Directory objects based on the characteristics of both the objects and the delegated administrators requesting access to the objects. This feature enables you to define and enforce very specific requirements for granting administrative access to Active Directory data. For example, you can easily restrict access of delegated administrators to user accounts whose properties (such as Department or Country) match the properties of the delegated administrator’s account in Active Directory.
Access rules help you create more complete access controls on Active Directory objects by comparing object properties with user and device claims. A domain controller issues claims to an identity that consist of assertions based on the properties of that identity retrieved from Active Directory. When an identity requests access to a particular object, Active Roles evaluates the claims of that identity and the properties of that object against the access rules, and then, depending upon the evaluation results, applies the appropriate Access Templates to make an authorization decision.
Understanding access rules
Access rules enable administrators to apply access-control permissions and restrictions based on well-defined conditions that can include the properties of the target objects, the properties of the user who requests access to target objects, and the properties of the device from which the user requests access to target objects. For example, when the role or the job of a user changes (resulting in changes to the attributes of the user account in Active Directory), access rules can cause the user permissions to change dynamically without additional intervention from the administrator.
An access rule is an expression of authorization rules that can include conditions that involve user groups, user claims, device groups, device claims, and target object properties. When you apply an Access Template, you can use an access rule to determine the conditions that must be satisfied for the permissions resulting from the Access Template to take effect.
Conditional Access Template links
Active Roles enhances its authorization model by introducing conditional Access Template links, and takes advantage of conditional links by inserting user claims, device claims, and target object properties, into conditional expressions specified in access rules. An access rule can be applied to an Access Template link, causing the link to have an effect only if the condition of the access rule evaluates to True. During permission check, Active Roles inserts the claims and properties into conditional expressions found in the access rule, evaluates these expressions, and enables or disables the Access Template link based on results of the evaluation. In this way, the access rule determines the results of the permission check.
Access rules, along with conditional Access Template links, enable Active Roles to leverage claims for authorization to securable objects. This authorization mechanism (known as claims-based access control) supplements Access Template based access control to provide an additional layer of authorization that is flexible to the varying needs of the enterprise environment.
Prerequisites for using Access Rules
Before you can use Access Rules, the following conditions must be fulfilled:
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Claim support must be enabled in your Active Directory domain. For details, review the topic Enabling claim support.
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For Access Rules to use device claims, Group Policy setting Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > System > Kerberos > Support Compound Authentication with the Always option must be enabled on the client computers, in addition to the Kerberos client support for claims, compound authentication and Kerberos armoring setting (see Client computer).
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The Active Roles Administration Service must be installed on a computer running Windows Server 2016 or a later version of the Windows Server operating system.
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The Active Roles Administration Service that performs authorization using Access Rules must be installed in the Active Directory forest where the user account of the authorizing user is defined and in which the claim types used by the Access Rules are created. Active Roles does not support the use of Access Rules for cross-forest authorization.
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Group Policy setting Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > System > Kerberos > Kerberos client support for claims, compound authentication and Kerberos armoring must be enabled on the computer running the Administration Service.
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The Administration Service must be configured to support Kerberos authentication.
