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Coyotos, A New Security-focused OS & Language

Posted by Hemos on from the locking-things-down dept.

wap writes "For those who haven't been following the EROS project, it has now migrated to the Coyotos project. EROS, the Extremely Reliable Operating System, was a project to create an operating system whose security relied on capabilities rather than the traditional Unix model of root or non-root. Capabilities allow a rigorous verification of the security of a system, something which is not possible in Unix-style and MS Windows systems. Coyotos is to be a real-world usable implementation of the ideas from EROS, complete with a Linux emulator layer. It also specifies a new language, called BitC which allows the programmer to prove that the code implements certain semantics, thus providing another layer of verifiable security. Could this be the most leet OS and language of 2005?" Another submittor asks how this stacks up against using Systems Management and "standard" OSes.

5 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Need for a superuser? by Andreas(R) · · Score: 3, Funny
    One of the problems I see with high levels of security without a superuser-style account is the possibility of someone leaving, dying, or forgetting his password, and not being able to get to critical business data.

    Exhaustive password search, of course.

  2. Coyotos by Deathlizard · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hmm. does it work with Roadrunner? :)

    --
    In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
  3. Son of a... by tepples · · Score: 5, Funny

    Imagine what happens when Microsoft tries to compete by making a buggier implementation of BitC. It'll give us yet another reason to BitC# at Microsoft.

    1. Re:Son of a... by Kyont · · Score: 3, Funny

      Dang, you beat me to it. I was thinking of a version with a hyperthread-supporting local application protocol (BitCH-SLAP).

      --
      You shall see a cow on the roof of a cotton house.
  4. so... by mogrify · · Score: 4, Funny

    #include <BitC.h>

    --
    perl -e 'foreach(values %SIG){$_="IGNORE";}while(){}'