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NSA Releases Updated SELinux
darthcamaro writes "Looks like our federal tax dollars are hard at work - improving security on Linux! The NSA - you know the folks that are shadowy figures on X-files - have released the latest updates to SELinux (security enhanced). Internetnews.com has got a piece on it
where they talk to Gentoo and Red Hat about the release's significance."
I wonder how it compares to Tin Foil Hat Linux?
Anyone can provide contrast/comparisons?
ScullyEnhanced Linux?
I'm in. Where do i get it?
mattdev@server$ touch
cannot touch `/dev/genitals': Permission denied
...backdoors!
Treehugger? Treehugger... Treehugger!
I guess NSA didn't get the memo -- or the lobbyists -- from SCO telling them that open source software was a security risk and that terrorists could use it to make their own supercomputer.
I noticed this too. Is that kind of stereotype really that prevalent (or is it just accurate)? All of the NSA folks I've met (not many, mind you) were less shadowy than my mailman.
Then again, I'm pretty sure my mailman opens my birthday cards.
Hell, this could be good for all OS users
Imagine grandpa sitting down to breakfast, reading the paper, and seeing this article (if it's published in his paper). Maybe - just maybe, he'll think *is my computer secure?* And he'll realize it is.
Knowing my fiancee's grandfather though, he'll think *those spooks are using my social security money on computer games?!*
There's an error if you have all security and 0 convenience.
If the NSA pored over the Windows code and made it secure, well, then you would have big government.
"It required a work force of 384 slaves, 34 slave drivers, 12 engineers, 2 turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree. The work was managed by a command team composed of 2345 bureaucrats, 2347 secretaries (at least two of whom could type), 12,256 paper shufflers, 52,469 rubber stampers, 245,193 red tape processors, and nearly one million dead trees."
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Zero convenience would mean that you can't do anything, why would anyone care?
Besides, you can always evaluate the limit as convenience approaches OpenBSD^H^H^H zero.
So does the NSA :)
I remember when legal used to mean lawful, now it means some kind of loophole. - Leo Kessler
i'm sure it can't hold a candle to BarbieOS !!
seeing as even federal government agencies already believe in the GPL.
That can't be true, because it would mean that Windows has infinite convenience!
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
They'll regret such foolish generousity when Darl and SCO bitch-slap them with a law-suit and a request for n*$699 (for secret values of n). [Bugs voice] Please Jacques, not this distro!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
one of the coolest gov agncies. Think really smart geeks working in secret for the greater good :)
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
Why else would it be so popular?
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
Slashdot *readers* do read the article. Slashdot posters are another matter entirely...
Summary of Changes for SELinux
[classified@classified]
[classified@classified] fix broken (classified) in (classified).c
[classified@classified] changed (classified), added (classified)'s patch to (classified)
[classified@classified] (classified) (classified) with (classified)
When convenience nears zero, the machine has been dismounted into its smallest components and each component is mantained in a separate safe room at a different geographic location. In the limit, security is infinite when the machine being secured does not exist anymore and cannot be re-assembled - ie, it has been reduced to its original atoms and those were scattered in different places.
What kinds of changes in SELinux would be NOT welcome in mainstream Linux distros?
Well, I just downloaded and installed it.
One thing I don't like is all these damn -- ouch! the keyboard just shocked me! -- darn pop-ups.
Like every 10 minutes up pops a window, and there's John Ashcroft staring back at me, and he keeps calling me "Winston Smith" whoever the hell -- ouch!, ok, ok -- that is, and he's keeps telling me I'm broadcasting an IP address and a retinal pattern, or that I'll have to upgrade to the "Corporate Professional" version if I want add-ons like my 4th Amendment rights, or asking whether I'm an "outlawed homo-pervert" or do I qualify for the "fellow Christian Faith-Based Set-Asides" discount.
I dunno, are you sure this SELinux was built with the end-user in mind?
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
"Hello Mr. McBride, welcome to the National Security Agency Before we talk about your lawsuit and IP claims
we'd like to show you a few things. Exhibit one. A picture of you entering a hotel room in Orem with two live nanny goats, a
rubber raft, a pair of chaps and a can of Frymax fryer grease. Exhibit 2. Pictures from within the room of activities which violate the laws of God and Man, if not those of the State of Utah. Exhibit 3, credit card receipts for animal tranquilizers and male goat hormones. Shall we continue?"
cheap labor conservatives - they want to keep you hungry enough to be thankful for minimum wage.
SELinux has been going on for four years now. Moreover, the NSA doesn't certify this as some sort of bulletproof linux, it mostly just adds access controls (I'm guessing aka ACLs). Since nobody's been dumb enough to run around marketing the NSA's involvement and SELinux it really hasn't caught on much. Bandying about that the NSA has somehow "approved" of this kernel would likely result in a very pissed off NSA. Nobody, not even marketing, dicks with the NSA.
I Browse at +4 Flamebait
Open Source Sysadmin
And linux would end up with a DIVISION BY ZERO error ;)
SCO vs. NSA
Day 1: Darl announces SCO will be suing the NSA
Day 2: Darl is missing and the SCO headquarters has mysteriously been hit by a US nuke.
OK, Darl says that Linux is a threat to National Security, but the NSA who is responsible for National Security contributes to Linux.... Therefore logic says that Linux is good for National Security. But Microsoft says that they are more secure than Linux. Who's on first, what's on second...
Yeeow! Nothing like a paradigm shift without using the clutch!
Personally, I would love to see SCO demanding money from the NSA for a linux license =) This should get rid of the SCO problem really fast ;-))