Abstract to Privileges rather than to Roles in ASP.NET Applications
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Published: 14 Dec 2010
Abstract
It's very common to check whether the current requesting user is in a particular role in order to determine whether they are authorized to do or see something within an ASP.NET application. This approach can break down over time as the number of roles and business rules for determining authorization increase. By creating an abstraction for privileges, this issue can be easily managed.
by Steven Smith
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The Problem

If you've written much ASP.NET code since 2005, you've probably used the built-in role provider, or rolled your own, and written code that checks whether the current user belongs to a particular role.  For instance, for an article site like ASPAlliance.com, you might choose to show an Edit link to editors with some code like this:

if(currentUser.IsInRole(Roles.Editor))
{
  editLink.Visible = true;
}

Of course, it might also be true that authors should be able to edit their own articles, too.

if(currentUser.IsInRole(Roles.Editor) ||
  (currentUser.IsInRole(Roles.Author) 
   && article.AuthorId = new Author(currentUser.userId).Id)
  )
{
  editLink.Visible = true;
}

 

Oh, but we don't want authors to be able to edit content once it's been published, only while it's still in draft or submitted status.

if(currentUser.IsInRole(Roles.Editor) ||
  (currentUser.IsInRole(Roles.Author) && 
   article.AuthorId = new Author(currentUser.userId).Id &&
   article.Status != ArticleStatus.Approved &&
   article.Status != ArticleStatus.Published)
  )
{
  editLink.Visible = true;
}

 

Now of course, this link goes to some page like EditArticle.aspx, and that page is going to also need to ensure that only authorized users can access it.  Otherwise, even though the Edit link might not be visible to unauthorized users on the article page, a clever user might construct the link on their own and still gain access to the edit page.  So in your Page_Load or similar you would end up doing another big ugly if check to see if the current user is authorized to edit the article.  And at this point the code is extremely ugly and already starting to duplicate itself in your system - it's starting to smell.  The Don't Repeat Yourself principle bears following, and you can combat repetition in your logic with abstraction.


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User Comments

Title: Dermatal   
Name: Dermatal
Date: 2010-12-30 1:42:12 AM
Comment:
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Title: Nice solution, but there is at least one other way   
Name: Mark Kamoski
Date: 2010-12-29 11:56:04 AM
Comment:
Nice solution, but there is at least one other way. I usually use an added table bolted onto the ASP.NET Application Services tables that maps (object-type and action-type) and then grants (or denies) access to that operation. The calls look like something like this... bool hasPermission = SecurityHelper.HasPermission(CurrentUserName, ObjectName, ActionName); ...and so on. That works OK too. Just a thought. Thank you. -- Mark Kamoski
Title: use static   
Name: Trevor
Date: 2010-12-29 11:12:51 AM
Comment:
I would prefer to see a static method below. ie.

ArticlePrivilege.AuthorizedToEdit

That way you don't need to instantiate a class for no reason.

----
var articlePrivilege = new ArticlePrivilege();
if(articlePrivilege.AuthorizedToEdit(article, currentUser))
{
editLink.Visible = true;
}
----

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