A system, method, and program product is provided that provides authentication on a per-role basis in a Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) environment. When a user attempts to acquire a role, the improved RBAC system determines whether (a) no authentication is required (e.g., for a non-sensitive role such as accessing a company's product catalog), (b) a user-based authentication (e.g., password) is required, or (c) a role-based authentication (e.g., role-specific password is required).