Security
Security in MODx Revolution
Security in MODx Revolution is primarily driven by an Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) paradigm.
Each user in MODx has a User object, which can be assigned to any number of User Groups. Each User Group then has attributes assigned to it via Access Control Lists (ACLs). These ACLs take a variety of names depending on how they are applied, but all share one common principle - they contain a list of Permissions. These Permissions allow access to different areas or actions within MODx.
ACLs usually have the following:
- Principal - The object that is getting the access permissions. This is in MODx, by default, a User Group.
- Target - The object they apply to, for example, a Context or Resource Group.
- Access Policy - The list of Permissions that is gained by this ACL.
- Authority - The minimum Authority level required to use this ACL (see Roles).
Security Tutorial Video
Demonstrates by applying concepts to the MODx Sample Site to:
- Restrict RSS feed to Directors and up
- Restrict Blog to Staff only
- Create a 'secure' context for Directors and up only
- Restrict some element categories to administrators only
Example: Context Access
A good example is creating a Context named 'test', and assigning an ACL to it. This can be done by editing the Context, and going to the 'Access Permissions' tab. From here, you can give a User Group (say, 'HR Dept') explicit access to this Context by selecting the User Group, the 'Administrator' Access Policy, and specifying a required Authority (say, 9999 for 'Member') to have:
This will restrict the 'test' Context to users who are a Member (or Role with more authority) of the 'HR Dept' User Group.
See Also
- Users
- User Groups
- Resource Groups
- Roles
- Policies
- Security Tutorials
- Hardening MODX Revolution
- Security Standards
- Troubleshooting Security
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