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Security Fundamentals & Crypto · Foundational

Discretionary Access Control (DAC)

Access control model where the owner of a resource decides who may access it.

Definition

In DAC, object owners grant and revoke permissions at their discretion, typically via ACLs. It is flexible and used by Windows NTFS and Unix file permissions. Its weakness is that users can share access inappropriately and malware running as a user inherits their rights.

Example

A user right-clicks a folder they own and grants a coworker Modify permission.

Exam tip

DAC = owner decides; most commercial operating systems use DAC.

Don't confuse it with

Related terms