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    Glossary
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mandatory access control (MAC)

Abbreviations / Acronyms / Synonyms:

Nondiscretionary Access Control

Definitions:

  An access control policy that is uniformly enforced across all subjects and objects within the boundary of an information system. A subject that has been granted access to information is constrained from doing any of the following: (i) passing the information to unauthorized subjects or objects; (ii) granting its privileges to other subjects; (iii) changing one or more security attributes on subjects, objects, the information system, or system components; (iv) choosing the security attributes to be associated with newly-created or modified objects; or (v) changing the rules governing access control. Organization-defined subjects may explicitly be granted organization-defined privileges (i.e., they are trusted subjects) such that they are not limited by some or all of the above constraints.
Sources:
CNSSI 4009-2015

  See mandatory access control (MAC).
Sources:
CNSSI 4009-2015 under non-discretionary access control

  means that access control policy decisions are made by a central authority, not by the individual owner of an object. User cannot change access rights. An example of MAC occurs in military security, where an individual data owner does not decide who has a top-secret clearance, nor can the owner change the classification of an object from top-secret to secret.
Sources:
NIST SP 800-192 under Mandatory access control (MAC)

  A means of restricting access to system resources based on the sensitivity (as represented by a label) of the information contained in the system resource and the formal authorization (i.e., clearance) of users to access information of such sensitivity.
Sources:
NIST SP 800-44 Version 2 under Mandatory Access Control

  An access control policy that is uniformly enforced across all subjects and objects within a system. A subject that has been granted access to information is constrained from: passing the information to unauthorized subjects or objects; granting its privileges to other subjects; changing one or more security attributes on subjects, objects, the system, or system components; choosing the security attributes to be associated with newly created or modified objects; or changing the rules for governing access control. Organization-defined subjects may explicitly be granted organization-defined privileges (i.e., they are trusted subjects) such that they are not limited by some or all of the above constraints. Mandatory access control is considered a type of nondiscretionary access control.
Sources:
NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 under mandatory access control