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Recap of webinar: "Simplify access controls in Node.js, React & serverless apps" | Cerbos & ByteGrad

AAlex OlivierJune 11, 202551 min read

Implementing Access Control in Node.js, React & Serverless Apps

Thank you for registering for our webinar! Whether you joined us live or plan to watch the replay, we're excited to share valuable insights on enhancing your application security and efficiency.

During the session, Alex Olivier, Cerbos Chief Product Officer, and Wesley, presenter of the popular ByteGrad Youtube channel, demonstrated how to author permissions and policy changes using Cerbos Hub, and deploy those changes without changing any other code.

Scroll down to read a high-level summary of the webinar, and check out the transcript.

Useful resources

• Cerbos Hub - find out more
• Cerbos Hub - documentation
• Book a 30 minute free workshop. Let us help you build or review your first policy
• Join our Slack Community to get all your questions answered, and keep up-to-date with latest developments
• Check out Wesley’s channel for the upcoming Cerbos Hub tutorial – perfect to get started

Webinar recap

Understanding authentication vs. authorization

Alex clarified the distinction, highlighting authentication as the process of verifying who someone is, whereas authorization determines what resources a user can access.

Common authorization challenges

Wesley discussed the technical debt and security vulnerabilities that typically arise from handling roles, permissions, and policies across multiple apps and platforms in-house.

The Cerbos Hub solution

Alex examined how Cerbos Hub simplifies creating, managing, and deploying access control policies across your entire application landscape, ensuring a unified and secure approach.

Live demo highlights

• Setup of a free policy repository on Cerbos Hub to define roles and permissions.
• Instant policy synchronization across your apps, from front-end frameworks like React and Next.js to back-end Node.js services, mobile apps, and APIs.
• Utilization of WASM libraries to enforce and sync access controls seamlessly, ensuring a consistent security posture across any environment.

Cerbos Hub's additional features

Alex discussed additional features of Cerbos Hub, such as audit logging and trail, SDKs for all languages, and others.

Transcript

Alex Olivier: Excellent. Hello everyone that's starting to join us now. We'll begin our webinar in a couple of minutes. Give everyone a chance to join in.

Wesley: Hello everyone. I'm Wesley. I'll be talking a little bit as well. I'm gonna show you a practical demo of using Cerbos and Cerbos Hub in practice. Some of you may already know me from a YouTube channel. I create React and Next.js content.

Alex Olivier: Thank you for joining this webinar with Cerbos and talking about simplifying access controls in Node.js, React, and serverless applications. By way of introductions, I'm Alex Olivier. I am the CPO here at Cerbos, focusing on authorization space.

Wesley: I'm a React Next.js developer and I came across Cerbos as a solution for authorization.

Alex Olivier: Right. I think we will kick it off.

Understanding authentication

Authentication is verifying who someone is, whereas authorization determines what actions they can perform.

Authorization challenges

Wesley discussed the typical issues experienced from managing roles and permissions in-house.

The Cerbos Hub solution

Alex explained how Cerbos Hub enables consolidated management of access control policies.

Live demo highlights

Setup of a policy repository for roles and permissions, instant policy synchronization, and seamless access control enforcement using WASM.

It’s about speed and security

Cerbos Hub simplifies management of policies across applications, improving security and efficiency while providing audit trails for decisions.