ACLek

ACLek is a hypothetical software framework for designing, implementing, and auditing access control lists (ACLs) in distributed systems. It provides a compact, domain-specific language for expressing permissions, a policy engine for evaluating requests, and tooling for testing and auditing of policies.

Core components include a declarative policy language that supports role-based and attribute-based access control, a policy editor with syntax checks, a conflict detector, and a runtime engine that enforces policies across services and APIs. It also offers auditing features such as change history, tamper-evident logs, and compliance reports, along with visualization tools to map policy decisions and access paths.

The system is organized into policy specification, evaluation engine, and integration layers. The policy language is compiled into an intermediate representation consumed by the engine, which evaluates requests in real time against the current policy set and a decision graph. ACLek is designed to be pluggable with directory services, identity providers, and service meshes; it exposes APIs and microservice-friendly interfaces.

ACLek is described in academic literature as a reference framework for studying access-control policy design and verification. It is commonly used in coursework and research to illustrate concepts such as policy composition, conflict resolution, and formal verification techniques.

As a hypothetical project, ACLek has not seen broad industry deployment. In scholarly discussions it is used as a teaching and evaluation tool; practitioners may compare it to production-grade policy engines and discuss trade-offs between expressiveness, performance, and manageability.