Techniques for controlling access to resources within a device are described. A device is described, for example, that includes a computer-readable medium and a management interface. The computer-readable medium stores configuration data and authorization data. The authorization data defines an access control attribute and an associated regular expression specifying a textual pattern. The management interface receives a text-based command to access the configuration data of the device, evaluates the command using the regular expression, and controls access to the configuration data based on the evaluation.