Security-enhanced Linux

[micael]

Another interesting concept.. ?

I can only ask why they have been working so long time on this one before making it public available? Is this distribution to be trusted or are there some "hidden" features in it ? Maybe it's only my paranoid twin who speaks out loud. I will atleast check it out when it's available for download from a public site and when there is a stable release available.

Source: selnuxcov_osdbli
As part of its Information Assurance mission, the National Security Agency (NSA) has been involved with the computer security research community in investigating operating system security. Recognizing the critical role of operating system security mechanisms in supporting security at higher levels, researchers from the NSA’s Information Assurance Research Group have developed, and are making available to the public a security-enhanced Linux system.

Linux was chosen as the platform for this work because its growing success and open development environment provided an opportunity to demonstrate that this functionality can be successful in a mainstream operating system and, at the same time, contribute to the security of a widely used system.

Download and beta information.

Request beta version, shipping is free:
mail@securityenhancedlinux.com

You MUST include your company's name, physical address, telephone number & a corporate email address.
(provide shipping information, 3-disk set at 1.3gb)
Further patches and bug fixes will be sent as available.

Request additional information:
info@securityenhancedlinux.com

Submit comments and contributions to this distribution:
beta@securityenhancedlinux.com

~micael

[Cemetric]

Hi,

Maybe they just made this release so they could still get in the computers ...they say it's very secure but probably left some nice backports open so they can still get inside , as for a linux distribution you made safe yourself they probably have less success of succeeding in hacking your box .. but thats just my opinion

[problemchild]

they say it's very secure but probably left some nice backports open so they can still get inside

Since it's GPL'ed software, a good code audit should clear that up. And they have to know that people are going to be paranoid about the NSA and look into it, so I doubt they'd have melons big enough to try it. But you never know........

[roswell1329]

Originally posted here by micael
Another interesting concept.. ?

I can only ask why they have been working so long time on this one before making it public available? Is this distribution to be trusted or are there some "hidden" features in it ? Maybe it's only my paranoid twin who speaks out loud. I will atleast check it out when it's available for download from a public site and when there is a stable release available.
~micael

Security-enhanced Linux has been available as a beta product from the NSA's website for quite a while now. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't want to advertise too loudly about it, because some people might not read the FAQ and take it to be a "trusted" operating system because it was put out by the NSA. They state quite clearly in their FAQ that SE-Linux does not constitute a "trusted" system by itself. Such a system requires many more elements than just an OS. Just a thought.