Why it matters

Authorization bugs cause many breaches. Understanding models prevents mistakes.

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The architecture

RBAC: users have roles; roles have permissions. Simple, scales to many users.

ABAC: policy considers user, resource, action, environment attributes.

Authorization modelsRBACrole → permissionsABACattributes → decisionPolicy engineOPA / CedarExternal policy engines centralize authz logic across services
Authz approaches.
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How it works end to end

Enforce at every request: don't rely on UI to hide unauthorized actions.

Multi-tenant: isolate tenants via authz. Cross-tenant leaks are common bugs.

Least privilege: users get minimum needed.

Audit logs: record all authz decisions.