Lattice-based access control

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When dealing with computer and information system security, the use of access controls limit system or user access based on a specified set of criteria.

Lattice-Based Access Control (LBAC) is a complex method for limiting information access based on any combination of objects (such as resources, computers, and applications) and subjects (such as individuals, groups or organizations).

In this type of control model, a lattice is used to define the levels of security that an object may have, and that a subject may have access to. That is, we define a partial order on the security levels, in such a way that any two security levels always have a greatest lower bound (meet) and least upper bound (join). If two objects A and B are combined to form another object C, that object is assigned a security level formed by the join of the levels of A and B, and if two subjects need to jointly access some secure data, their access level is defined to be the meet of the subject's levels. A subject is allowed to access an object only if the security level of the subject is greater than or equal to that of the object, in the partial order defining the lattice.

LBAC is known as a more specific set of access control restrictions and is based on the lesser complex model known as Role-Based Access Control (RBAC).

Lattice based access control models were first formally defined by Denning (1976); see also Sandhu (1993).

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How can you say that lattice-based access control is based on role-based access control? The idea of lattice-based access control came in 1970s, while the role-based access control is formalized and accepted in 1990s, although you can even assume that there are RBAC implementations in 1970s.