Database Systems: Concepts, Design and Applications

14.3. Discretionary Access Control

Discretionary access control (also called security scheme) is based on the concept of access rights (also called privileges) and mechanism for giving users such privileges. It grants the privileges (access rights) to users on different objects, including the capability to access specific data files, records or fields in a specified mode, such as, read, insert, delete or update or combination of these. A user who creates a database object such as a table or a view automatically gets all applicable privilege on that object. The DBMS keeps track of how these privileges are granted to other users. Discretionary security schemes are very flexible. However, it has certain weaknesses, for example, a devious unauthorised ...