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Security Fundamentals & Crypto · Advanced

Policy Decision Point (PDP)

Zero trust component that evaluates access requests against policy and decides whether to grant them.

Definition

In NIST SP 800-207, the PDP consists of the policy engine, which makes the trust decision using inputs such as identity, device posture, threat intelligence, and logs, and the policy administrator, which establishes or tears down the session. It operates in the control plane. Examples include Microsoft Entra Conditional Access and identity-aware proxy policy engines.

Example

The policy engine denies a request because the device's EDR reports it as high risk.

Exam tip

PDP decides (control plane); PEP enforces (data plane).

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