What can best be described as a domain of trust that shares a single security policy and single management?
Correct Answer: B
A security domain is a domain of trust that shares a single security policy and single management.
The term security domain just builds upon the definition of domain by adding the fact that resources within this logical structure (domain) are working under the same security policy and managed by the same group.
So, a network administrator may put all of the accounting personnel, computers, and network resources in Domain 1 and all of the management personnel, computers, and network resources in Domain 2. These items fall into these individual containers because they not only carry out similar types of business functions, but also, and more importantly, have the same type of trust level. It is this common trust level that allows entities to be managed by one single security policy.
The different domains are separated by logical boundaries, such as firewalls with ACLs, directory services making access decisions, and objects that have their own ACLs indicating which individuals and groups can carry out operations on them.
All of these security mechanisms are examples of components that enforce the security policy for each domain. Domains can be architected in a hierarchical manner that dictates the relationship between the different domains and the ways in which subjects within the different domains can communicate. Subjects can access resources in domains of equal or lower trust levels.
The following are incorrect answers: The reference monitor is an abstract machine which must mediate all access to subjects to objects, be protected from modification, be verifiable as correct, and is always invoked. Concept that defines a set of design requirements of a reference validation mechanism (security kernel), which enforces an access control policy over subjects' (processes, users) ability to perform
operations (read, write, execute) on objects (files, resources) on a system. The reference monitor
components must be small enough to test properly and be tamperproof.
The security kernel is the hardware, firmware and software elements of a trusted computing base
that implement the reference monitor concept.
The security perimeter includes the security kernel as well as other security-related system
functions that are within the boundary of the trusted computing base. System elements that are
outside of the security perimeter need not be trusted. not every process and resource falls within
the TCB, so some of these components fall outside of an imaginary boundary referred to as the
security perimeter. A security perimeter is a boundary that divides the trusted from the untrusted.
For the system to stay in a secure and trusted state, precise communication standards must be
developed to ensure that when a component within the TCB needs to communicate with a
component outside the TCB, the communication cannot expose the system to unexpected security
compromises. This type of communication is handled and controlled through interfaces.
Reference(s) used for this question:
Harris, Shon (2012-10-25). CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, 6th Edition (Kindle Locations 28548-
28550). McGraw-Hill. Kindle Edition.
Harris, Shon (2012-10-25). CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, 6th Edition (Kindle Locations 7873-
7877). McGraw-Hill. Kindle Edition.
Harris, Shon (2012-10-25). CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, 6th Edition , Access Control, Page
214-217
Schneiter, Andrew (2013-04-15). Official (ISC)2 Guide to the CISSP CBK, Third Edition : Security
Architecture and Design (Kindle Locations 1280-1283). . Kindle Edition.
TIPTON, Hal, (ISC)2, Introduction to the CISSP Exam presentation.
AIO 6th edition chapter 3 access control page 214-217 defines Security domains. Reference
monitor, Security Kernel, and Security Parameter are defined in Chapter 4, Security Architecture
and Design.
