Userdomainresource

Userdomainresource is a conceptual construct used in identity and access management to describe the intersection of a user, the security domain they inhabit, and a particular resource they may access. It functions as a model for expressing and enforcing access permissions across boundaries such as organizations, federations, or multi-tenant environments. In this view, access decisions are driven by policies that reference the three elements: the user identity, the domain or scope of authority, and the target resource.

Components and structure

A userdomainresource can be represented as a triplet or entitlements record consisting of:

- user: the principal attempting access (often including identity attributes).

- domain: the security boundary or namespace that defines the user’s scope and trust level.

- resource: the object or service being requested (file, API, application feature, etc.).

Access policies, rights, or permissions may be attached to the triplet, sometimes with contextual attributes such as time, device, or location.

Role and usage

UDRs are used to support policy-based access control, including role-based (RBAC) and attribute-based (ABAC) approaches. They enable systems to evaluate whether a given user in a specified domain should be granted a particular resource entitlement. They are commonly implemented in IAM platforms, token services, or entitlement catalogs and can appear in tokens, fences, or policy databases.

Examples and considerations

Examples include a user from Domain A accessing a shared analytics API in Domain B under a consented cross-domain policy, or a tenant user accessing a SaaS feature limited to their domain. Key considerations include least-privilege enforcement, cross-domain trust, auditing, and timely revocation of entitlements.