Mandatory Access Control (MAC)

Last Updated: January 4, 2017

Definition - What does Mandatory Access Control (MAC) mean?

Mandatory Access Control (MAC) is is a set of security policies constrained according to system classification, configuration and authentication. MAC policy management and settings are established in one secure network and limited to system administrators.

MAC defines and ensures a centralized enforcement of confidential security policy parameters.

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Techopedia explains 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.