Modernizing Authorization for Cloud Native Applications Usin... Andres Aguiar & María Inés Parnisari
Channel: CNCF [Cloud Native Computing Foundation]
Date: 13/11/2023

Modernizing Authorization for Cloud Native Applications Using OpenFGA - Andres Aguiar & María Inés Parnisari, Okta

Authentication has made significant strides in the past decade, benefiting from industry, community, and standards organizations' efforts to establish effective abstractions and widespread implementation. However, authorization remains a persistent challenge for most applications. The scattered nature of authorization logic within source code makes it difficult to comprehend and audit. While Role Based Access Control (RBAC)/Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) implementations have provided some assistance, they often fall short when dealing with fine-grained authorization at scale. To address this issue, OpenFGA, a CNCF sandbox project, introduces a new approach that combines Relationship Based Access Control (ReBAC) and ABAC, enabling flexible and scalable centralized authorization. In this presentation, we will delve into the inner workings of OpenFGA and showcase various use cases where organizations have successfully adopted it to solve authorization problems.