| Information flow control regulates where information is allowed to travel within an information system and between information systems (as opposed to who is allowed to access the information) and without explicit regard to subsequent accesses to that information. Specific examples of flow control enforcement can be found in boundary protection devices (e.g., proxies, gateways, guards, encrypted tunnels, firewalls, and routers) employing rule sets or establish configuration settings restricting information system services, provide a packet-filtering capability based on header information, or message-filtering capability based on content (e.g., using key word searches or document characteristics). Policy enforcement mechanisms include the filtering and/or sanitization rules applied to information prior to transfer to a different security domain. Parsing transfer files facilitates policy decisions on source, destination, certificates, classification, subject, attachments, and other information security-related component differentiators. Policy rules for cross domain transfers include, limitations on embedding components/information types within other components/information types, prohibiting more than two-levels of embedding, and prohibiting the transfer of archived information types.
Rationale for non-applicability:
Mobile applications that provide flow control or inter-domain communication are outside the scope of this SRG. Local interprocess communication is a core operating system function. |
