Discovery & Assessment

Before you can migrate to Fine-Grained Authorization, you need to understand what you’re migrating from. Authonomy’s Discovery & Intelligence engine automatically scans your entire technology stack to map your authorization landscape and assess migration complexity.

What We Discover

🔍 Application Layer

• Source code analysis: Permission checks, role definitions, access control logic
• Framework detection: Spring Security, ASP.NET Authorization, Django permissions, etc.
• API endpoints: Protected routes and their authorization requirements
• Configuration files: Security policies, role mappings, permission matrices

🗄️ Database Layer

• User and role tables: Existing RBAC structures and relationships
• Access control lists: File system permissions, database grants
• Row-level security: Existing RLS policies and triggers
• Audit tables: Current logging and compliance tracking

⚙️ Infrastructure Layer

• Identity providers: Connected IDPs and their configurations
• Application servers: Web server auth modules and middleware
• Load balancers: Request filtering and routing rules
• API gateways: Existing authorization policies

📋 Policy & Process

• Business rules: Domain-specific access requirements
• Compliance requirements: Regulatory constraints and audit needs
• Organizational structure: Departments, teams, and reporting hierarchies

Intelligence Reports

The discovery process generates comprehensive reports that give you complete visibility into your authorization infrastructure.

Authorization Landscape Map

A visual representation of how permissions flow through your systems:

• Identity sources and their relationships
• Application dependencies and trust boundaries
• Data flow paths and access decision points
• Permission inheritance and delegation chains

Complexity Assessment

Each system receives a complexity score based on:

• Authorization model diversity (how many different models you use)
• Business rule complexity (custom logic and edge cases)
• System interdependencies (how tightly coupled your authorization is)
• Technical debt level (how much legacy code needs consideration)

Migration Effort Estimation

Detailed breakdown of migration requirements:

• High-priority systems requiring immediate attention
• Quick wins that can be migrated with minimal effort
• Complex scenarios requiring custom policy development
• Recommended migration sequence for optimal risk management

Sample Discovery Output

# Sample Authorization Discovery Report
systems_discovered: 12
authorization_models_found:
  - rbac: 8 systems
  - hardcoded: 3 systems  
  - database_acl: 1 system

complexity_scores:
  customer_portal: 8.5/10 (high complexity)
  admin_dashboard: 3.2/10 (low complexity)
  legacy_billing: 9.8/10 (very high complexity)

migration_estimates:
  total_effort: 12-16 weeks
  quick_wins: 2-3 weeks
  complex_systems: 8-10 weeks
  
priority_recommendations:
  - Start with admin_dashboard (quick win)
  - Design policies for customer_portal
  - Plan careful approach for legacy_billing

Ongoing Monitoring

Discovery isn’t just a one-time activity. The platform provides ongoing monitoring to:

• Track authorization changes as your systems evolve
• Identify new security gaps before they become problems
• Monitor migration progress with detailed metrics
• Alert on policy violations or unexpected access patterns

Getting Started with Discovery

Step 1: Initial Scan

Connect the discovery agent to your development or staging environment:

# Install the discovery agent
curl -sSL https://get.authonomy.io/discovery | bash

# Configure your environment
authonomy discovery configure --environment staging

# Run your first scan
authonomy discovery scan --full-analysis

Step 2: Review Results

Access your personalized discovery dashboard to:

• Review the authorization landscape map
• Understand complexity assessments
• Download detailed migration estimates

Step 3: Plan Your Migration

Use the intelligence reports to:

• Prioritize which systems to migrate first
• Understand resource requirements
• Plan your migration timeline
• Identify potential roadblocks

Discovery Best Practices

🎯 Start Comprehensive

Run discovery against all environments (dev, staging, prod) to get a complete picture. Different environments often have different authorization configurations.

🔄 Regular Refresh

Re-run discovery periodically as your systems evolve. New applications, configuration changes, and business rule updates all affect migration complexity.

👥 Cross-Team Collaboration

Include security, compliance, and application teams in discovery review sessions. Each team brings different perspectives on authorization requirements.

📋 Document Edge Cases

Use discovery reports to identify and document unusual authorization patterns that may require custom policy development.

Security & Privacy

All discovery operations are designed with security in mind:

• Read-only access: Discovery never modifies your systems
• Encrypted transmission: All data is encrypted in transit and at rest
• Minimal footprint: Lightweight agents with minimal system impact
• Audit logging: Complete audit trail of discovery activities

Next Steps

Once you understand your authorization landscape, move on to Policy Translation & Modeling to start designing your modern FGA policies.

Ready to discover your authorization landscape? Start your assessment or schedule a consultation with our migration experts.