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ISC2 CC Practice Question: After a security audit, a company discovers that…
After a security audit, a company discovers that several employees have access to financial systems that are not required for their job roles. Which access control model would best prevent this issue in the future?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse DAC's owner-discretion model with least privilege; candidates often pick DAC because it sounds flexible, but flexibility is precisely what caused the excessive access.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Role-based access control (RBAC)
RBAC assigns permissions to roles rather than individuals, so access is granted only when a user's job role requires it. This directly enforces least privilege and prevents the audit finding where employees held unnecessary financial-system access. When roles are defined from job functions and reviewed periodically, orphaned or excessive entitlements are far easier to detect and remove.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Mandatory access control (MAC)
Why it's wrong here
MAC assigns access via system-enforced labels and clearances, not job-role requirements, so it cannot align entitlements to business duties. It is tempting because MAC is the strictest model and blocks unauthorised access, but it is designed for classification-based environments such as military or government systems, not role-driven least privilege.
- ✗
Discretionary access control (DAC)
Why it's wrong here
DAC lets resource owners set permissions at their discretion, which is precisely how excessive entitlements accumulate as staff change roles. It is tempting because DAC is flexible and easy to administer, but that flexibility is the weakness here; role-based access control ties permissions to job functions and would prevent the drift.
- ✓
Role-based access control (RBAC)
Why this is correct
Role-based access control assigns permissions to job roles rather than individuals, so employees inherit only the access their role requires. This enforces least privilege and prevents the excessive financial-system entitlements found in the audit, directly addressing the stem's requirement.
- ✗
Attribute-based access control (ABAC)
Why it's wrong here
Attribute-based access control (ABAC) evaluates access decisions against a policy engine using subject, resource, and environmental attributes, but it does not inherently enforce a baseline of least privilege tied to job roles. The stem requires a model that restricts access strictly to what is necessary for a specific role, which ABAC cannot guarantee without a pre-defined role-to-attribute mapping—a function that role-based access control (RBAC) provides natively. ABAC is tempting because it offers fine-grained, dynamic policy enforcement in complex environments, such as granting access based on time of day or location, and would be correct when access rules must adapt to changing contextual attributes rather than static job functions.
Quick reference
Access Control Model Comparison
| Model | Acronym | Who Controls Access? | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discretionary Access Control | DAC | Resource owner | Small teams, file shares |
| Mandatory Access Control | MAC | System / security labels | Classified govt / military |
| Role-Based Access Control | RBAC | Administrator (via roles) | Enterprise environments |
| Attribute-Based Access Control | ABAC | Policy engine (user + resource attributes) | Fine-grained, dynamic policies |
| Rule-Based Access Control | RuBAC | System rules / ACLs | Firewall rules, network ACLs |
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Access Control Fundamentals
Key term
RBAC
RBAC is a method of restricting network access based on the roles of individual users within an organization, where permissions are assigned to roles rather than to individuals directly.
Key term
Least privilege
Least privilege is a security principle that means giving users, systems, or programs only the minimum permissions they need to do their job and nothing more.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official ISC2 exam blueprint
This CC practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISC2 certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CC exam.