Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Would You Use SELinux?

Posted by Cliff on from the NSA-wouldn't-dare-backdoor-a-penguin-,,,-would-they dept.

silent_tyr asks: "I am going to re-install my Linux box and being security conscious I am looking for a secure distribution. After a couple of Google searches I found a version called Secure Linux, which sounded ideal. So I followed this link, which turned out to be what I assume is a genuine NSA web-site. All in all, it looks like a good idea and I can play around with it as I wish, but eventually I will be using this machine as my base-system. So before I start I want to ask two questions: 1) Do you think that it is a good idea to trust the NSA not to put in back-door/spy-ware type code to enable them to snoop my personal information? 2) What other security-patched distro's can people recommend? I don't want to open up the floor for generic NSA-bashing, but I also don't want to have to work my way through every line of code before I install." There was a similar question that was asked a while ago, but there wasn't much to the discussion. For those of you who are running SELinux, what have your experiences been, so far?

2 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. self-defeating... by belbo · · Score: 4, Interesting
    "I also don't want to have to work my way through every line of code before I install."

    Hum, so you ask us, who you don't know, which developers, who - in most cases - you nor we know either -, to trust? Maybe you are an NSA agent in search of backdoor-free distributions? Why should we trust you, sir?

    Seriously, short of a full code audit, you can never be sure. Security is a process, and not something you can install. I thought that was commonplace around here.

    --

    --
    "Just believe everything I tell you, and it will all be very, very simple."

  2. So, use OpenBSD already... by ivi · · Score: 5, Interesting


    Does it -have- to be Linux?!?

    SDF (the free shell-provider) switched -from-
    Linux... after a security breech...

    OpenBSD is claiming to have had:

    "Only one remote hole in the default install,
    in more than 7 years!"

    That's not too bad IMO.

    And... if you -really- itch for Linux...
    you can always put it on a box -this-
    side of an OpenBSD box (ie away from
    the Internet...)