Beyond Centralized Policy Decision Points: Decentralized Sticky Policy Authorization through Evidence Quorums
Researchers present SPEAR-Q, a decentralized sticky-policy system that authorizes access through signed evidence quorums.
Researchers present SPEAR-Q, a decentralized sticky-policy framework that replaces a central Policy Decision Point with independent Policy Authority Nodes. Nodes evaluate the active policy using local context, consent, and risk data, then issue signed authorization evidence; a strict majority decides Permit or Deny, and a committed policy activates only after a majority applies it. On the Airbus Cyber Security Simulation Platform, a MIMIC-IV healthcare workload completed all 9,000 requests without execution failure or timeout. Sub-quorum false-Permit evidence could not release resources, and authorization failed closed when too few nodes were reachable.
- Independent Policy Authority Nodes issue signed authorization evidence from local context.
- A strict-majority quorum decides Permit or Deny and activates committed policies.
- Tested on Airbus's simulation platform using a MIMIC-IV healthcare workload.
- All 9,000 requests finished; sub-quorum false permits stayed fail-closed.
From the original article
1 min read at arxiv.orgSticky policies remain attached to protected data so that access restrictions can persist across systems, yet request-time authorization often still depends on a centralized Trusted Authority or Policy Decision Point (PDP).
By Aleena Nazir · arxiv.org
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