An Access Control Model for XML Repositories

The XML documents are nested and semi-structured, but the traditional access control mechanism is coarse-grained and not applicable. We proposed an XML access control model (XACM) for XML repository. The XACM provides a fine granular definition for XML authorizations, which is based on the self-description characteristic of XML. We also discuss how to use the XACM to automatically preserve the access control policy, when relational databases are published as XML documents. Finally, we present the implementation of the XACM in an actual XML publisher system. Comparing with existing related works, the XACM is more flexible, efficient and less overheads.