Access Control Models for Government and Military Applications | SSCP Exam Preparation

Proposed Access Control Model for Government and Military Applications

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Which access control model was proposed for enforcing access control in government and military applications?

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The Bell-LaPadula model, mostly concerned with confidentiality, was proposed for enforcing access control in government and military applications.

It supports mandatory access control by determining the access rights from the security levels associated with subjects and objects.

It also supports discretionary access control by checking access rights from an access matrix.

The Biba model, introduced in 1977, the Sutherland model, published in 1986, and the Brewer-Nash model, published in 1989, are concerned with integrity.

Source: ANDRESS, Mandy, Exam Cram CISSP, Coriolis, 2001, Chapter 2: Access Control Systems and Methodology (page 11).

The access control model that was proposed for enforcing access control in government and military applications is the Bell-LaPadula model.

The Bell-LaPadula model was developed in the early 1970s by David Bell and Leonard LaPadula to address the security needs of the United States Department of Defense. The model is based on the concept of a multilevel security system, where information is classified into different levels of sensitivity and access is granted based on the clearance level of the user.

The Bell-LaPadula model defines two security rules: the Simple Security Property and the *-property.

The Simple Security Property (SSP) states that a subject cannot read information at a higher security level than its clearance level. In other words, a user with a lower clearance level cannot access information with a higher clearance level.

The *-property, also known as the Star-property, states that a subject cannot write information to a lower security level. This means that a user with a higher clearance level cannot modify or write information to a lower clearance level.

The Bell-LaPadula model also includes a set of rules to enforce access control policies, such as the Trusted Subjects rule, which states that trusted subjects can access any object regardless of its security level, and the Tranquility rule, which states that the system should remain in a secure state even if a security violation occurs.

Overall, the Bell-LaPadula model is a mandatory access control (MAC) model, where access to information is determined by the system rather than the user. It has been widely used in government and military applications to enforce security policies and protect sensitive information.