Glossary
Authorization Cache
An authorization cache stores the outcome of a recent policy decision so that an identical or similar subsequent request can be answered without repeating the full evaluation. This matters for performance when policy evaluation is expensive or a policy engine is a shared resource under heavy load, but it introduces a specific risk: a permission revoked after a decision was cached may continue to be honored from the cache until it expires or is invalidated.
How long that window stays open is a deliberate tradeoff, not a fixed constant — a longer cache lifetime reduces load on the decision-making component and widens the gap between revocation and its actual effect; a shorter one narrows that gap at the cost of evaluating policy more often.