Changing the State of a Security Policy

The security policy state indicates whether users can apply a security policy to data objects and whether the system enforces the ACEs set in the security policy. An administrator can change the state of a security policy through the allowtagging and accesscontrol parameters when creating or modifying a security policy from the maprcli or equivalent REST API comands.

The following table describes the allowtagging and accesscontrol parameters.
Parameter Default Accepted Values and Descriptions
allowtagging false
false
  • Disables tagging; users cannot apply the security policy to data objects.
  • This is the default setting if the administrator creates a security policy, unless the administrator changes the setting when creating the security policy.
  • In cases where a security policy is active (allowtagging=true) but needs to be deprecated, modify the policy and set allowtagging=false. This prevents users from tagging any other data objects with the policy. Note that the system continues to enforce the security controls set in the security policy for data objects that were already tagged with the security policy.
true
  • Enables tagging; users can apply the security policy to data objects.
  • When creating or modifying a security policy, an administrator can set allowtagging=true.
  • When creating a security policy, the administrator may want to set this parameter to true to test the security settings in the policy or to use tagging tools to discover data content and tag the data.
  • An administrator can set allowtagging=true to enable a deprecated security policy.
accesscontrol Disarmed
Disarmed
  • This is the default setting if the administrator creates a security policy, unless the administrator changes the setting when creating the security policy.
  • The system does not enforce the ACEs set in the security policy during data operations on the data objects tagged with the security policy.
Armed
  • The system enforces the ACEs set in the security policy during data operations on the data objects tagged with the security policy.
  • When creating or modifying a security policy, the administrator can set accesscontrol=Armed.
  • When creating a security policy, the administrator may want to set this parameter to Armed to verify that ACEs are correctly defined in the policy and the system correctly enforces them.
  • The administrator can set accesscontrol=Armed to enforce ACEs set in a deprecated security policy. The system continues to enforce ACEs set in the security policy for all data operations on the data objects tagged with the policy.
Denied
  • Denies all access to data objects tagged with the security policy.

Changing the State of a Security Policy

An administrator can change the state of a security policy through the allowtagging and accesscontrol parameters to move a security policy through a life cycle, as shown in the following image where the security policy moves from new to retired.



The following table describes each of the stages in the security policy life cycle:
Stage Description
New (default)
  • Default upon security policy creation.
  • Users cannot tag data objects with the security policy.
  • The system does not enforce ACEs set in the security policy.
In-use
  • Users can tag data objects with the security policy.
  • The system enforces all security controls set in the security policy during data operations on data objects tagged with the security policy. Security controls set in the policy can include ACEs, auditing, and wire-level encryption.
Deprecated
  • Users can no longer tag the security policy to data objects.
  • The system still enforces the security controls set in the security policy for all data operations on the data objects tagged with the policy. Users cannot tag any additional data objects with the policy.
Retired
  • Users cannot tag the security policy to data objects.
  • All data operations on the data objects tagged with the security policy are denied by the system.
    WARNING
    Remove a security policy from data objects before retiring it. The system denies all access to data objects tagged with a retired security policy. See Removing Tagged Security Policies from Data Objects.