Which process ensures users have permission to perform specific actions on a system?

The process that ensures users have permission to perform specific actions on a system is authorization. Authorization is a crucial aspect of security in information systems, as it determines what resources a user can access and what operations they are allowed to perform. This process follows authentication, which is the verification of a user's identity. Once a user is authenticated, authorization checks their permissions against the security policies in place, ensuring they can only perform actions for which they are granted explicit access.

In contrast, other processes such as validation refer to ensuring data meets certain criteria before it is processed, monitoring involves keeping track of user activity and system performance, and authentication focuses solely on confirming a user's identity. Therefore, while these processes are significant in their respective functions, they do not specifically ensure that users have permission to perform particular actions within the system.