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

[Ka-Ping Yee]

On Wed, 3 Jan 2007, Jonathan S. Shapiro wrote:
> > How would you write the definition?
>
> That has been a subject of very hot debate here. Better to leave those
> pages as they were than introduce definitions that we *know* are wrong.
> My suggestion is that you should back these edits out.

I don't agree.  The page on "Discretionary access control" is
unquestionably better than it was before i made the edit.  Prior
to the edit it defined DAC as a filesystem access control policy.
The current definition is backed up by text from a Rainbow Book --
which, though it is by no means the only word on the topic, it at
least provides a basis for stating what some significant group of
people have used this term to mean.

Clearly you are using these terms as if you know exactly what they
mean, and if you do, and believe you have a basis for showing that
your interpretation is a widely accepted usage, then you should
edit the page to explain it (and/or add explanatory material to the
associated discussion page).  The discussion we are having here may
add to our own understanding, but it contributes nothing to Wikipedia.


-- ?!ng