Role Explosion

Definitions

1. A situation in which a role-based access control system accumulates too many narrow, overlapping, or exception-driven roles to manage effectively. Role explosion makes reviews harder, increases the chance of hidden excessive access, and often signals that the authorization model is too rigid or poorly governed.

   In plain English: A problem where a role-based access system grows into too many roles to manage well.

   Example: "Their RBAC project stalled because role explosion produced hundreds of barely distinct roles that no business owner could review confidently."

Related Terms

• Authorization
• Access Control List
• Active Directory
• Authentication Bypass
• Credential Harvesting
• Credential Manager
• Role Engineering
• Role Mining