Role-Based Access Control and Zero Trust Network Access in a Self-Hosted Healthcare Cloud Environment

Abstract

This project focuses on forming a secure and easy-to-use personal cloud system for healthcare centers, especially in places where internet access is limited or unavailable at all. The system allows different healthcare staff—like doctors, nurses, receptionists, and an administrator—to upload and access patient records based on their job roles. For example, doctors can view diagnosis reports, while nurses can access treatment logs, and receptionists handle appointments. To keep the data safe, we’ve used Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), which means users can only see what they’re allowed to. We also used a tool called OpenZiti to build an offline Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) system. This helps ensure that only trusted users can connect securely to the system, even without internet, the system is lightweight, runs on basic hardware, and doesn’t require any third-party software or cloud services. It’s built using PHP and MySQL on an Ubuntu virtual machine. Our goal was to make a secure, private, and self-hosted solution that protects sensitive medical data and works well in rural or small healthcare setups.