A critical aspect of providing a simple end-user experience for access requests and ensuring that only compliant access can be requested is controlling which items different types of users see and may request. Suppose all end users are presented with the same catalog of requestable items. In that case, the user experience quickly becomes overwhelming and confusing as users must filter through large amounts of data to find the access they are looking for that would be relevant for them to request. Exposing unnecessary data also creates a severe security vulnerability as external users or potentially malicious actors may browse the entire catalog of the organization’s most sensitive roles and resources. Also crucial for regulatory compliance is to blacklist or explicitly deny the ability of certain groups of users ever to see or request specific roles and resources to enforce country-specific restrictions such as the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
Eligibility Policies
EmpowerID offers a powerful policy engine to control which users may see and request which roles and resources in the IT Shop. These policies are known as “Eligibility.” Eligibility policies may apply to users by attribute query, role, group, or other criteria, making it easy to target who receives which policies and have the assignment automated and maintained throughout their lifecycle. To further ease the administrative burden, Eligibility policies can be applied to all requestable items of a type by location in addition to one-by-one. This allows policies to be broader, granting or excluding eligibility using the EmpowerID Location tree. For roles, eligibility policies can be applied to their members to control what those members may see and request in the IT Shop. Policies also apply to the role itself as a possible IT Shop item to control who may see and request it.
Eligibility Rules
Eligibility policies can be defined as either inclusion rules or exclusion rules. Inclusion rules define the items a user is authorized to see and request in the IT Shop and ensure these are only the ones that would make sense for them to request. An application example could be rules that filter resources available for Field Sales employees and developers. The catalog of requestable roles and resources available to each of those employees should be different ensure that unwarranted access requests are not generated, creating unnecessary approval tasks. Additionally, inclusion and exclusion rules help organizations provide employees a more pleasant user shopping experience as they are shielded from viewing resources that they cannot request.
Inclusion rules include the following:
Eligible – Users can request items in the IT Shop, and the request will go for approval unless the requesting person has the RBAC delegations needed to grant the access being requested.
Pre-Approved – Users assigned the policies are pre-approved for the items to which the policy is applicable. When the IT Shop user later requests access, it will not require an approval step before being fulfilled.
Suggested – The IT Shop item will show a “Suggested” additional item they may request because of their existing roles or in the context of a role they are currently requesting. The item will still follow standard approval routing rules.
Eligibility Policy applied to a person
Inclusion and exclusion rules can be assigned to any EmpowerID actor type. If a user is excluded (either directly or indirectly by virtue of belonging to a group or role that is excluded), the exclusion takes priority over inclusion.
Next Steps
Configure Eligibility for Business Roles and Location Combinations
Configure Eligibility for Groups