Rich,
I just reviewed the combining algorithm specifications and they are
all fine with empty input. They basically have a structure by which
some state variables are set to default values, then a loop iterates
over the children. In case there are no children, the loop body is
never executed and the decision is returned based on the default
state of the variables in the algorithm, and the decision is correct
for each algorithm. So the normative descriptions are perfectly
fine.
What I will do is to add to the non-normative descriptions the
special case of no children.
Best regards,
Erik
On 2012-02-24 18:08, rich levinson wrote:
Hi Erik,
It looks to me like there has been a subtle shift of emphasis from
the contents of the Policy determining the Decision to the
combining
algorithm becoming more active in coming to a Decision regardless
of what's contained in the Policy. This is not necessarily a bad
thing,
but it is a shift of emphasis when considering Policy evaluation.
In fact,
it is probably a good thing, because the algorithm can clearly
state
what all the special cases are and we don't have to rely on a
bottom
up analysis of the individual Rules.
So, the bottom line is that the value of a Policy is equal to
either
a value of NotApplicable or Indeterminate returned from Target
evaluation, or a value determined by the rule-combining algorithm
applied to a set of Rule nodes, which may have length 0->n.
Personally, I think it is important in this situation that each
combining algorithm explicitly state its intent wrt to 0-length
arrays, or at least there should be an introductory section
to the combining algorithm section that makes this situation
clear. i.e. there is a specific argument passed to the combining
algorithm (Node[] children, where Node can be either Rule or
Policy) and the details of what this argument can contain
and how the algorithm behaves based on that should be clear.
Thanks,
Rich
On 2/24/2012 4:12 AM, Erik Rissanen wrote:
Rich,
You are reading an old version of the spec. The current table
looks like this:
Target Rule values Policy Value
“Match” Don’t care Specified by the rule-combining
algorithm
“No-match” Don’t care “NotApplicable”
“Indeterminate” See Table 7 See Table 7
The change was introduced in wd 20 in order to make sure the new
combining algorithms were always invoked. It would be confusing
if a policy with permit-unless-deny could return not-applicable
since this algorithm was specifically introduced to guarantee
that N/A or Indeterminate are never returned.
Best regards,
Erik
On 2012-02-23 21:58, rich levinson wrote:
To TC:
To collect the info from today's discussion, which was ref'd
in the
Feb 9 minutes:
the "latest email" I thought Erik and I had agreement that a
statement
would be made in the "implementor's guide" that a Policy w no
Rules
may be ignored by developers:
http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xacml/201202/msg00000.html
"It would seem to me that at a minimum, we
could include
an advisory note to developers that a PDP may ignore
a Policy that contains no Rules, since there is no point
from a XACML functional perspective to provide any logic
to do anything specific with such Policies.
Such an approach would remove any questions from
developers,
and could leave the schema unchanged."
During today's discussion, the notion was introduced that
somehow a
combining algorithm could effectively introduce a decision
despite the
fact that there were no Rules in the Policy.
However, I think that interpretation is wrong for the
following reason.
For Policy evaluation, we have to refer to section 7.11
"Policy Evaluation".
According to Table 5 there, the following is normative
behavior:
The policy truth table is shown in Table 5.
Target
Rule values
Policy Value
“Match”
At least one rule value is its Effect
Specified by the rule-combining
algorithm
“Match”
All rule values are “NotApplicable”
“NotApplicable”
“Match”
At least one rule value is
“Indeterminate”
Specified by the rule-combining
algorithm
“No-match”
Don‟t care
“NotApplicable”
“Indeterminate”
Don‟t care
“Indeterminate”
Table 5 Policy truth table
I think we can agree that the Target is a "Match", since, by
section 7.7, even
an empty Target matches any request.
Also, I think that rows 1 and 3 that begin with "At least one
rule ..." do
not apply since there are "zero Rules" in the use case we are
discussing.
Since those rows are the only places that cause the
rule-combining
algorithm to be invoked, I think we can assume that even
combining
algorithms, such as "Deny-unless -permit" (section C.6) or
"Permit-unless-deny" (section C.7) will not get invoked.
Therefore, the only thing that is left is row 2, which states:
"All Rule values are "NotApplicable"". I believe this
statement
is TRUE, because in order to be false there must be at least
one Rule which has a value other than "NotApplicable", which
is FALSE, and therefore the statement is TRUE.
Therefore, a Policy w no Rules must evaluate to NotApplicable.
QED. :)
Thanks,
Rich
