You will learn

  • How Role-based access control works in BigchainDB

Hi there! Welcome to our next tutorial about Role-based access controls (RBAC) in BigchainDB. For this tutorial, we assume that you are familiar with the BigchainDB primitives (assets, inputs, outputs, transactions etc.). If you are not, familiarize yourself with the Key concepts of BigchainDB. We also assume that you have completed our first tutorial.

About RBAC

Role based access control is a way to restrict the system access to certain users. In BigchainDB this function enables the creation of hierarchies of role and permissions as assets. Furthermore, users can be assigned roles to “act on behalf of” or “represent” other users or groups.

In our example use-case scenario for this guide, we have different tribes or groups of users where they have different roles, users belonging to one tribe can create proposal assets and others can create vote assets on the BigchainDB blockchain.

Setup

Start by installing the official BigchainDB JavaScript driver, Python driver or Java driver:

# JavaScript driver
npm i bigchaindb-driver

# Python driver
pip install -U bigchaindb-driver

<!-- Java driver, in pom.xml for Maven users -->
<dependency>
	<groupId>com.bigchaindb</groupId>
	<artifactId>bigchaindb-driver</artifactId>
	<version>1.0</version>
</dependency>

Then, include that as a module and connect to any BigchainDB node.

const BigchainDB = require('bigchaindb-driver')

const API_PATH = 'https://test.ipdb.io/api/v1/'
const conn = new BigchainDB.Connection(API_PATH)

from bigchaindb_driver import BigchainDB

conn = BigchainDB('https://test.ipdb.io')

BigchainDbConfigBuilder
	.baseUrl("https://test.ipdb.io/").setup();

Important note: The BigchainDB RBAC module does not work out of the box in BigchainDB and a plugin smart-assets needs to be loaded with a specific BigchainDB branch (kyber-master). The setup instructions are available in the README.md of the smart-assets repository.

Let’s create the app. You will create an asset for Admin type which will act as the admin group for the app. Async/await functions will be used in this tutorial

const nameSpace = 'rbac-bdb-tutorial'
async function createApp(){
    // Generate keypair for admin instance
    const admin1 = new BigchainDB.Ed25519Keypair()

    // Create admin user type. This is the asset representing the group of
    // admins
    const adminGroupAsset = {
        ns: `${nameSpace}.admin`,
        name: 'admin'
    }
    const adminGroupMetadata = {
        canLink: [admin1.publicKey]
    }

    const adminGroupId = (await createNewAsset(admin1, adminGroupAsset,
        adminGroupMetadata)).id
    document.body.innerHTML ='<h3>Admin Group asset created</h3>'
    document.body.innerHTML +=adminGroupId.id


    // Create admin user instance. This is a single user with admin role
    // represented by an asset. Is the asset representing admin1 user
    // Create app asset with admin1, the umbrella asset for representing the app
    const appAsset = {
        ns: nameSpace,
        name: nameSpace
    }
    const appMetadata = {
        canLink: adminGroupId
    }

    const appId = (await createNewAsset(admin1, appAsset, appMetadata)).id
    console.log('App: ' + appId)
}

The createNewAsset function looks like this:

async function createNewAsset(keypair, asset, metadata) {

    let condition = BigchainDB.Transaction.makeEd25519Condition(keypair.publicKey,
        true)

    let output = BigchainDB.Transaction.makeOutput(condition)
    output.public_keys = [keypair.publicKey]

    const transaction = BigchainDB.Transaction.makeCreateTransaction(
        asset,
        metadata,
        [output],
        keypair.publicKey
    )

    const txSigned = BigchainDB.Transaction.signTransaction(transaction,
        keypair.privateKey)
    let tx
    await conn.postTransactionCommit(txSigned)
        .then(retrievedTx => {
            tx = retrievedTx
        })
    return tx
}

You have just generated the admin type and app asset, so now you are able to create all of the other assets for this RBAC example, which are the users (including the admin one) and the tribe.

function createUsers() {

    const user1 = new BigchainDB.Ed25519Keypair()
    const user2 = new BigchainDB.Ed25519Keypair()
    const user3 = new BigchainDB.Ed25519Keypair()

    const adminuser1Metadata = {
        event: 'User Assigned',
        date: new Date(),
        timestamp: Date.now(),
        publicKey: admin1.publicKey,
        eventData: {
            userType: 'admin'
        }
    }

    // Admin user instance belongs to the AdminGroup
    const adminUserId = (await createUser(admin1, adminGroupId, 'admin',
        admin1.publicKey, adminuser1Metadata)).id
    document.body.innerHTML ='<h3>Admin user asset created</h3>'
    document.body.innerHTML +=adminUserId

    // Tribes are user groups
    const tribe1Id = (await createType('tribe1', appId, adminGroupId)).id
    document.body.innerHTML ='<h3>Tribe 1 asset created</h3>'
    document.body.innerHTML +=tribe1Id

    const tribe2Id = (await createType('tribe2', appId, adminGroupId)).id
    document.body.innerHTML ='<h3>Tribe 2 asset created</h3>'
    document.body.innerHTML +=tribe2Id

    // create user instances
    const user1Metadata = {
        event: 'User Assigned',
        date: new Date(),
        timestamp: Date.now(),
        publicKey: admin1.publicKey,
        eventData: {
            userType: 'tribe1'
        }
    }
    // Create the asset representing user1 with the admin1 keys.
    // Add it to tribe 1
    const user1AssetId = (await createUser(admin1, tribe1Id, 'tribe1',
        user1.publicKey, user1Metadata)).id
    document.body.innerHTML ='<h3>User 1 asset created</h3>'
    document.body.innerHTML +=user1AssetId

    // create user instances
    const user2Metadata = {
        event: 'User Assigned',
        date: new Date(),
        timestamp: Date.now(),
        publicKey: admin1.publicKey,
        eventData: {
            userType: 'tribe2'
        }
    }

    // user 2 added to tribe 2
    // Is the asset representing user1
    const user2AssetId = (await createUser(admin1, tribe2Id, 'tribe2',
        user2.publicKey, user2Metadata)).id
    document.body.innerHTML ='<h3>User 2 asset created</h3>'
    document.body.innerHTML +=user2AssetId

    const user3Metadata = {
        event: 'User Assigned',
        date: new Date(),
        timestamp: Date.now(),
        publicKey: admin1.publicKey,
        eventData: {
            userType: 'tribe1'
        }
    }

    // user 3 added to tribe 1
    const user3AssetId = (await createUser(admin1, tribe1Id, 'tribe1',
        user3.publicKey, user3Metadata)).id
    document.body.innerHTML ='<h3>User 3 asset created</h3>'
    document.body.innerHTML +=user3AssetId
}

You have created the users, some of them belonging to tribe 1 and others to tribe 2. Now is time to give different permissions to the different tribes. For that you will create asset types for proposals and for votes.

async function usersToTribes(){
    // Non users
    // Proposal: only tribe 1 users can create proposal
    const proposalGroupId = (await createType('proposal', appId, tribe1Id)).id
    console.log('ProposalGroup: ' + proposalGroupId)

    // Vote: only tribe 2 users can create vote
    const voteGroupId = (await createType('vote', appId, tribe2Id)).id
    document.body.innerHTML ='<h3>Vote group asset created</h3>'
    document.body.innerHTML +=voteGroupId

So now simply create proposals and votes from different users. You will see how just some users will be able to create proposals and some others will be able to vote.

    // create proposal by user 1 - should pass
    const proposal1 = await createTypeInstance(user1, 'proposal',
        proposalGroupId, { name: 'new proposal by user 1',
        timestamp: Date.now() })
    document.body.innerHTML ='<h3>Proposal group asset created</h3>'
    document.body.innerHTML +=proposal1.id

    // create vote by user 2 - should pass
    const vote1 = await createTypeInstance(user2, 'vote', voteGroupId,
        { name: 'new vote by user 2', timestamp: Date.now() })
    document.body.innerHTML ='<h3>Vote instance created</h3>'
    document.body.innerHTML +=vote1.id

    // create proposal by user 3 - should pass
    const proposal2 = await createTypeInstance(user3, 'proposal',
        proposalGroupId, { name: 'new proposal by user 3',
        timestamp: Date.now() })
    document.body.innerHTML ='<h3>Vote instance created</h3>'
    document.body.innerHTML +=proposal2.id

    // create vote by user 1 - should fail
    const vote2 = await createTypeInstance(user1, 'vote',
        voteGroupId, { name: 'new vote by user 1', timestamp: Date.now() })
    document.body.innerHTML ='<h3>Vote instance could not be created</h3>'
    document.body.innerHTML +=vote2.id
}

The concepts discussed in this guide can be found in detail on our blog.

The demo code is available in GitHub.