Security-sensitive tackling of obstructed workflow executions

Abstract

Imposing access control onto workflows considerably reduces the set of users authorized to execute the workflow tasks. Further constraints (e.g. Separation of Duties) as well as unexpected unavailabilty of users may finally obstruct the successful workflow execution. To still complete the execution of an obstructed workflow, we envisage a hybrid approach. If a log is provided, we partition its traces into “successful” and “obstructed” ones by analysing the given workflow and its authorizations. An obstruction should then be solved by finding its nearest match from the list of successful traces. If no log is provided, we flatten the workflow and its authorizations into a Petri net and encode the obstruction with a corresponding “obstruction marking”. The structural theory of Petri nets shall then be tweaked to provide a minimized Parikh vector, that may violate given firing rules, however reach a complete marking and by that, complete the workflow.