Issues in Discretionary Access Control

This paper discusses the types of mechanisms that can be used to implement Discretionary Access Control (DAC). It also covers the access types that can be controlled by a DAC mechanism. and includes a brief discussion of related topics including protected subsystems; administering, auditing, and verifying DAC; and DAC implemented as an add-on to an operating system. Finally this paper discusses how the DAC information presented in this paper will be used by the Department of Defense Computer Security Center in the preparation of a DAC Guideline to aid system designers and developers in their selection of DAC mechanisms.