[cap-talk] Mandatory Access Control (was: What's "Discretionary Security")

[Karp, Alan H]

Jed wrote:
>                                                            Is MAC 
> really just another name for MLS?  If no, perhaps somebody could 
> suggest a MAC scheme that isn't MLS?
> 
Compartments.  
> 
> I believe the tension described in the above paragraph is at the 
> heart of why the MAC "community" (for lack of a better term, TCSEC, 
> etc., etc.) is antagonistic to object-capability systems, and visa 
> versa.  The MAC community feels that the basic object-capability 
> model is too laissez faire when it comes to access control (if "I" as 
> a subject have access to an object and I can communicate to "you" 
> then I can share access with you), while the object-capability 
> community feels that they're providing all the control that's 
> possible in any model.
> 
Personally, I think the MAC people are considering only permission,
while the capability people, perhaps implicitly, realize the importance
of authority.

_________________________
Alan Karp
Principal Scientist
Virus Safe Computing Initiative
Hewlett-Packard Laboratories 
1501 Page Mill Road
Palo Alto, CA 94304
(650) 857-3967, fax (650) 857-7029
https://ecardfile.com/id/Alan_Karp
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Alan_Karp/
  
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