Mandatory Access Control (MAC)

For best practices, MAC policy decisions are based on network configuration. In contrast, certain operating systems (OS) enable limited Discretionary Access Control (DAC).

MAC advantages and disadvantages depend on organizational requirements, as follows:

• MAC provides tighter security because only a system administrator may access or alter controls.
• MAC policies reduce security errors.
• MAC enforced operating systems (OS) delineate and label incoming application data, which creates a specialized external application access control policy.