ECM Protocol Security Specification

Security Model Overview

ECM Protocol security is designed defense-in-depth, with multiple layers protecting context data from unauthorized access, modification, and disclosure.

Authentication

Token-Based Authentication

// JWT authentication header
Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9...

// Token claims
{
  "sub": "service-account-123",
  "iss": "https://auth.example.com",
  "aud": "ecm-protocol",
  "exp": 1705320000,
  "scope": ["context:read", "context:write"],
  "tenant_id": "tenant-123"
}

Mutual TLS

// Client certificate authentication for service-to-service
{
  "authentication": {
    "type": "mtls",
    "client_cert": {
      "subject": "CN=context-service,O=Acme Corp",
      "issuer": "CN=Acme Internal CA",
      "valid_until": "2025-01-01T00:00:00Z"
    },
    "permissions": ["context:*"]
  }
}

Authorization

Permission Model

// Fine-grained permissions
{
  "permissions": [
    {
      "resource": "context:user-context:*",
      "actions": ["read"],
      "conditions": {
        "tenant_id": "${token.tenant_id}"
      }
    },
    {
      "resource": "context:system-context:config",
      "actions": ["read", "write"],
      "conditions": {
        "role": "admin"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Policy Evaluation

// Authorization decision request
{
  "principal": "user:alice@example.com",
  "action": "context:write",
  "resource": "context:user-context:user-123",
  "context": {
    "ip_address": "10.0.0.50",
    "time": "2024-01-15T10:00:00Z"
  }
}

// Authorization decision response
{
  "decision": "allow",
  "obligations": [
    {"type": "audit_log", "level": "info"}
  ]
}

Encryption

Transport Encryption

// TLS 1.3 required
{
  "tls": {
    "min_version": "1.3",
    "cipher_suites": [
      "TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384",
      "TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256"
    ],
    "certificate_validation": "strict"
  }
}

Field-Level Encryption

// Encrypt sensitive fields before storage
{
  "context_id": "ctx-123",
  "data": {
    "name": "Alice",
    "ssn": {
      "$encrypted": {
        "algorithm": "AES-256-GCM",
        "key_id": "key-456",
        "ciphertext": "base64...",
        "iv": "base64..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Audit Logging

Audit Event Format

{
  "event_type": "context.accessed",
  "timestamp": "2024-01-15T10:30:00Z",
  "principal": "user:alice@example.com",
  "action": "read",
  "resource": "context:user-context:user-123",
  "outcome": "success",
  "metadata": {
    "ip_address": "10.0.0.50",
    "user_agent": "ECM-Client/1.0",
    "correlation_id": "req-abc"
  }
}

Conclusion

ECM Protocol security specification provides comprehensive protection through authentication, fine-grained authorization, encryption, and audit logging. All implementations must meet these requirements.

> ECM Protocol Security Specification