I recently co-hosted a webinar on Fine Grained Authorization in Python with my teammate, Greg Sarjeant. Watch the video below to learn about:
- The limitations of hard-coded permissions
- Authorization patterns for security and flexibility
- Organization-based access control considerations
- Refactoring authorization logic in Python
- Abstracting authorization logic with Polar
You’ll also see a demo order management application that illustrates all this. Check out the repository if you’d like to see the code and experiment with it.
TL;DR: The webinar covered two main points:
- Challenges with Hard-Coded Permissions:
Hard-coded permissions in Python are insufficient for modern applications, leading to rigidity and scalability issues. RBAC, which relies on predefined roles and permissions, is inadequate for dynamic, fine-grained access control needs such as hierarchical relationships, contextual decisions, and flexible authorization models. To manage authorization effectively, dynamic and context-aware policies are essential. - Separation of Concerns:
When your authorization code is tightly coupled with your application code, scaling one without scaling both becomes difficult. Additionally, combining the two in the same functions makes it challenging to test or debug either one in isolation.
Additional Resources
For a deeper dive into the topic, explore the following resources:
- Learn how to Model in Polar.
- Read about RBAC, ReBAC, and ABAC.
- Dive into Role-Based Access Control in Python.
- Follow the Adopt Local Authorization guide for a step-by-step approach to replacing your homegrown authorization code with Oso Cloud.
- Check out the Authorization Academy for technology-agnostic authorization tips.
And if you have any questions, join us on Slack, we'd love to hear from you!