Source URL: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/opensource/secure-your-application-apis-in-5-minutes-with-cedar/
Source: AWS Open Source Blog
Title: Secure your Express application APIs in 5 minutes with Cedar
Feedly Summary: Today, the open source Cedar project announced the release of authorization-for-expressjs, an open source package that simplifies using the Cedar policy language and authorization engine to verify application permissions. This release allows developers to add policy-based authorization to their Express web framework APIs within minutes, and without any remote service calls. Express is a minimal […]
AI Summary and Description: Yes
Summary: The text discusses the release of the “authorization-for-expressjs” package by the open source Cedar project, designed to facilitate policy-based authorization in Express.js applications. This approach decouples authorization logic from application code, streamlining development and enhancing security by minimizing custom integration needs.
Detailed Description:
The Cedar project’s release of the authorization-for-expressjs package introduces significant enhancements for authorization in the Express web framework. Key points include:
– **Simplified Authorization**: The package allows developers to add policy-based authorization to their applications quickly, significantly reducing the amount of code required (by up to 90%).
– **Decoupling Authorization Logic**: By externalizing authorization, developers can avoid the pitfalls of embedding authorization logic within their application code, which often becomes complex and challenging to audit over time.
– **Cedar Language and SDK**: Cedar serves as a policy language and SDK for defining fine-grained permissions. This enables easy mapping of API requests into authorization requests via the Cedar engine.
– **Benefits of Using Cedar**:
– Frees up developers to concentrate on application logic rather than complex authorization code.
– Simplifies access audits and enhances application security posture.
– **Implementation Steps**:
– Developers can implement authorization using minimal code adjustments and by leveraging sample applications provided.
– The blog post details a step-by-step guide using a sample PetStore application, outlining how to integrate Cedar’s middleware for API-level authorization.
– **Challenges and Mitigations**: While the setup involves some upfront effort to define Cedar policies, the overall payoff is substantial, particularly in maintaining cleaner and more secure codebases.
– **Open Source Availability**: The package and related tools are available under the Apache 2.0 license, reflecting the continuing shift towards open source in security tools.
This development will interest professionals in AI, cloud, and infrastructure security by enhancing security practices and reducing the complications associated with authorization in modern applications.