“Recently many Linux and Unix detractors have been harping on
the fact that Linux’s security model is based on an old and archaic
way of doing business. Open-source advocates who are trying to get
better security commonly point to Open BSD as their platform of
choice. Linux has slowly been evolving extra security features,
such as capabilities added to the 2.1.x and 2.2.x kernels.
Unfortunately, not a lot of software takes advantage of these new
features.”
“In the US military and intelligence communities, commercial
Unix vendors have traditionally sold special versions of their
Operating Systems which use formal security models and conform to
varying degrees to part of a set of documents called “The Rainbow
Series” colloquially; particularly, the “Orange Book” which is
about trusted host security, and the “Red Book” which is about
trusted networking implementations.”
“What I’d like to do here is discuss an Open Source project
called RSBAC (Rule Set Based Access Control) which attempts to
bring a significantly higher level of security to the Linux kernel
and operating environment. After the introduction, we’ll
interview the project’s founder, Amon Ott, and see what the future
holds for some *serious* security in Linux.”