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Traditional access decision-making is agnostic to both Zero Trust and context. Historically, security teams based access decisions on trust. The common access management formula was to entrust digital identities to a given entity, assign entitlements to that entity, and then check access requests only against those entitlements. Even with the improvements of Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), entitlements remained static and implicit trust remained. 

Today, Zero Trust aims to remove all trust and assumptions from access decisions. To align with Zero Trust principles, teams should evaluate each access request based on risk and approve each request based on evidence. This is known as Context-Based Access Control (CBAC). CBAC enhances security by making real-time, risk-based access decisions using dynamic signals. These signals can include user behavior, device health, location, network conditions, and more.

This document provides guidance on implementing CBAC in Zero Trust architectures. It shows how CBAC improves security by assessing contextual factors for every access request, removing implicit trust. It also compares CBAC with other access control models and highlights CBAC’s stronger alignment with Zero Trust. Finally, the publication outlines a maturity model for CBAC, offers solutions for scaling and managing operational overhead, and explores various AI enhancements.