---
title: "Glossary"
date: "2022-02-28T00:00:00.000Z"
canonical: "https://www.cerbos.dev/glossary"
source: "https://www.cerbos.dev/glossary"
---

# Glossary

## ABAC

Attribute-based access control (ABAC), also known as policy-based access control for IAM, defines an access control paradigm whereby access rights are granted to users through the use of policies which combine attributes together.

## Authentication

It is the act of proving an assertion, such as the identity of a computer system user. It tells who you are.

## Authorization

Is the function of specifying access rights/privileges to resources. It tells what you can do.

## Cerbos Engine / Server

Also known as Cerbos Policy Decision Point (PDP) is the heart of Cerbos, a central piece of software that processes all the requests. It is built for modern, containerised microservice environments with support for both x86-64 and ARM64 architectures, comprehensive observability integrations (metrics, distributed tracing), REST and gRPC endpoints, and native GitOps support (CI tooling, push-to-deploy).

## Policy

Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol.

## Principal

The entity which is being authorised to perform an action. It can be a person/user, a service or any other identity

## Resource

The entity that the principal is requesting access to. These are typically the main objects that the policy is being applied to.

## Action

The action that the principal is requesting access to. It is a verb that is used to describe the type of access that is being requested.

## Playground

A playground, playpark, or play area is a place designed to provide an environment for developers that facilitates play and test a specific technology.

## SDK

Software Development Kit,  is a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They facilitate the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger within a software framework.

## RBAC

Role Based Access Control. It is a policy-neutral access-control mechanism defined around roles and privileges. The components of RBAC such as role-permissions, user-role and role-role relationships make it simple to perform user assignments.

## ReBAC

(Relationship-based Access Control)is a feature that allows admins to set up a system of delegated administration with which users can self-manage their relationships to digital assets.

## YAML

(Yet Another Markup Language) is a human-readable data-serialization language. It is commonly used for configuration files and in applications where data is being stored or transmitted.