XACML stands for "eXtensible Access Control Markup Language". The standard defines a declarative fine-grained, attribute-based access control policy language, an architecture, and a processing model describing how to evaluate access requests according to the rules defined in policies. As a published standard specification, one of the goals of XACML is to promote common terminology and interoperability between access control implementations by multiple vendors. XACML is primarily an attribute-based access control system (ABAC), also known as a policy-based access control (PBAC) system, where attributes (bits of data) associated with a user or action or resource are inputs into the decision of whether a given user may access a given resource in a particular way. Role-based access control (RBAC) can also be implemented in XACML as a specialization of ABAC. The XACML model supports and encourages the separation of enforcement (PEP) from decision making (PDP) from management / definition (PAP) of the authorization. When access decisions are hard-coded within applications (or based on local machine userids and access control lists (ACLs)), it is very difficult to update the decision criteria when the governing policy changes and it is hard to achieve visibility or audits of the authorization in place. When the client is decoupled from the access decision, authorization policies can be updated on the fly and affect all clients immediately. Version 3.0 was ratified by OASIS in January 2013. See also Role-based access control Attribute-based access control Mandatory access control Discretionary access control PERMIS GeoXACML Model-driven security Authorization References External links eXtensible Access Control Markup Language OASIS XACML committee website OASIS declaration of issues with two software patents of IBM Computer security procedures XML-based standards Access control