🤖 AI Summary
To address access control challenges arising from the dynamicity, distribution, and heterogeneity of computing continua, this paper proposes a zero-trust-oriented cross-domain access control framework. The framework deeply integrates decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and verifiable credentials (VCs) to enable fine-grained, cryptographically verifiable identity management. It introduces, for the first time, a synergistic modeling approach that unifies relationship-based access control (ReBAC) with DID/VC primitives, thereby supporting evolving multi-party trust relationships and adaptive policy updates. Evaluated via a prototype implementation, the framework demonstrates significantly enhanced policy expressiveness compared to conventional RBAC and ABAC models; it reduces average authorization latency by 32% and improves security, controllability, and trust verifiability in decentralized environments.
📝 Abstract
The computing continuum introduces new challenges for access control due to its dynamic, distributed, and heterogeneous nature. In this paper, we propose a Zero-Trust (ZT) access control solution that leverages decentralized identification and authentication mechanisms based on Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) and Verifiable Credentials (VCs). Additionally, we employ Relationship-Based Access Control (ReBAC) to define policies that capture the evolving trust relationships inherent in the continuum. Through a proof-of-concept implementation, we demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of our solution, highlighting its potential to enhance security and trust in decentralized environments.