A Closed Off System?

AnarkiNet wonders: "In an age of malware which installs itself via browsers, rootkits installing themselves from audio cds, and loads of other shady things happening on your computer, would a 'Closed OS' be successful? The idea is an operating system (open or closed source), which allows no third party software to be installed, ever. Yes, not even your own coded programs would run unless they existed in the OS-maker-managed database of programs that could be installed. Some people might be aghast at this idea but I feel that it could be highly useful for example in the corporate setting where there would be no need for a secretary to have anything on his/her computer other than the programs available from the OS-maker. For now, let's not worry if people can 'get around' the system. If each program that made up the collection of allowed programs was 'up to scratch' and had 'everything you need', would you really have an issue with being unable to install a different program that did the same thing?"

Comments

Seems to be a matter of reading 'man fstab' ...

[PaulBu]

... pay particular attention to noexec flag -- yes, one can configure his/her generic U**x system not to be able to execute anything off "other media" (including home directories) for what, like, 20 years... ;-)

Amazing what those guys back then thought of, is not it?

Paul B.

Re:not quite!

[ocelotbob]

SELinux policies. You can configure SELinux to have a default deny to execute files that aren't on an approved list of executables, and also ensure that only trusted persons have access to change those files.