IAM Scheme / Model

May 24, 2026

main types you should know (especially for CISSP):

IAM Scheme / Model	Full Name	How Access is Granted	Best Used For	Key Characteristic
DAC	Discretionary Access Control	Owner of the resource decides	Small companies, file sharing	Flexible but less secure
MAC	Mandatory Access Control	Based on security labels & clearances	Government, military, high security	Very strict & rigid
RBAC	Role-Based Access Control	Based on user’s job role	Most commercial organizations	Consistent & scalable
ABAC	Attribute-Based Access Control	Based on attributes (user, resource, environment)	Complex, dynamic environments	Very flexible
ReBAC	Relationship-Based Access Control	Based on relationships (e.g. Facebook)	Social apps, modern cloud	Relationship-focused

**Excellent question.**

### What is an **Identity and Access Management (IAM) Scheme**?

An **IAM Scheme** (also called **Access Control Model** or **IAM Model**) is a **framework or methodology** that defines:

– How **identities** (users, devices, applications, etc.) are created, managed, and verified.
– How **access rights** and permissions are assigned, enforced, and revoked.

In simple terms:
It answers the question → **“How does the organization decide who can access what, and how is that decision made consistently?”**

### Core Components of an IAM Scheme

An IAM scheme typically includes:

1. **Identification** – Who are you? (e.g., username, employee ID)
2. **Authentication** – Prove you are who you say you are (password, MFA, biometrics)
3. **Authorization** – What are you allowed to do? (permissions, roles, rules)
4. **Accountability** – Logging and auditing what you did

### Common IAM Schemes / Access Control Models

Here are the main types you should know (especially for CISSP):

### Why Organizations Choose One IAM Scheme Over Another

When Cassandra is deciding which IAM scheme to implement, the **deciding factor** is usually:

– **Consistency** (as we discussed earlier)
– Scalability
– Operational effort
– Security requirements
– Regulatory compliance
– Business needs

For example:
– A bank might choose **RBAC** because it is consistent and auditable.
– A cloud-native tech company might choose **ABAC** because it is more dynamic and context-aware.

—

### Simple Real-World Example:

Imagine a company with 5,000 employees.

– **Bad IAM Scheme**: Every manager manually gives permissions to every employee individually (inconsistent and chaotic).
– **Good IAM Scheme** (e.g., RBAC): HR assigns a “Finance Analyst” role, and the system automatically gives the correct permissions to everyone in that role.

Would you like me to explain any specific IAM model in more detail (especially RBAC or ABAC), or show you how they compare in terms of advantages and disadvantages?

anakyst

Protected: Rotary VI EAST

Feb 28, 2026

anakyst

Protected: BetterCyberCareer Group

Feb 28, 2026

anakyst

Protected: Benin Club 1931 – Official

Feb 28, 2026

OWASP TOP !0

Injection. Injection flaws, such as SQL, NoSQL, OS, and LDAP injection, occur when untrusted data is sent to an interpreter as part of a command or query. The attacker’s hostile data can trick the interpreter into executing unintended commands or accessing data without proper authorization. Broken Authentication. Application functions related to authentication and session management are often implemented incorrectly, allowing attackers to compromise passwords, keys, or session tokens, or to exploit other implementation flaws to assume other users’ identities temporarily or permanently. Sensitive Data Exposure. Many web applications and APIs do not properly protect sensitive data, such as financial, healthcare, and PII. Attackers may steal or modify such weakly protected data to conduct credit card fraud, identity theft, or other crimes. Sensitive data may be compromised without extra protection, such as encryption at rest or in transit, and requires special precautions when exchanged with the browser. XML External Entities (XXE). Many older or poorly configured XML processors evaluate external entity references within XML documents. External entities can be used to disclose internal files using the file URI handler, internal file shares, internal port scanning, remote code execution, and denial of service attacks. Broken Access Control. Restrictions on what authenticated users are allowed to do are often not properly enforced. Attackers can exploit these flaws to access unauthorized functionality and/or data, such as access other users’ accounts, view sensitive files, modify other users’ data, change access rights, etc. Security Misconfiguration. Security misconfiguration is the most commonly seen issue. This is commonly a result of insecure default configurations, incomplete or ad hoc configurations, open cloud storage, misconfigured HTTP headers, and verbose error messages containing sensitive information. Not only must all operating systems, frameworks, libraries, and applications be securely configured, but they must be patched/upgraded in a timely fashion. Cross-Site Scripting XSS. XSS flaws occur whenever an application includes untrusted data in a new web page without proper validation or escaping, or updates an existing web page with user-supplied data using a browser API that can create HTML or JavaScript. XSS allows attackers to execute scripts in the victim’s browser which can hijack user sessions, deface web sites, or redirect the user to malicious sites. Insecure Deserialization. Insecure deserialization often leads to remote code execution. Even if deserialization flaws do not result in remote code execution, they can be used to perform attacks, including replay attacks, injection attacks, and privilege escalation attacks. Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities. Components, such as libraries, frameworks, and other software modules, run with the same privileges as the application. If a vulnerable component is exploited, such an attack can facilitate serious data loss or server takeover. Applications and APIs using components with known vulnerabilities may undermine application defenses and enable various attacks and impacts. Insufficient Logging & Monitoring. Insufficient logging and monitoring, coupled with missing or ineffective integration with incident response, allows attackers to further attack systems, maintain persistence, pivot to more systems, and tamper, extract, or destroy data. Most breach studies show time to detect a breach is over 200 days, typically detected by external parties rather than internal processes or monitoring.