Thread: No linux is safe except slackware 11!

i urge you to read this entire thread

http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=46357.0

now!

Erm...
it's called SE-Linux
Modules for SE-Linux have been present in the Kernel for over 5 years

There's absolutely no point in scare-mongering
(not least cause you're 5 years late)
but more importantly, you can't hide "back doors" in open source software

I'd be more suspicious of back doors in Windows, than SE-Linux
At any one time, you don't know what Windows is doing

Anyway,

The idea was to extend basic *nix file permissions to incorporate mandatory access controls

The story, as I understand it, is:
- In 1998 the NSA started a complete overhaul of their computer systems. going from proprietary UNIX systems to Linux
They chose Linux as it offered the best features and security
plus, being open source, they could customise is to their own needs
- Linux lacked MAC security policies (which the NSA wanted), so the NSA wrote some kernel modules to fill the role
- In 2000 (presumably after extensive testing was completed), they released the modules to the Linux community - Kernels compiled with the NSA modules were dubbed Security Enhanced (SE) Linux
- In 2003, the modules were merged into the main-line kernel

If you don't like it, there's AppArmor as well, which does the same thing
(a few people complained that SE-Linux was overly complicated & difficult to implement for bog standard systems - so AppArmor was written to achieve the same goals as SE-Linux, but highly simplified)

^yes

Sneaking a backdoor into Linux is like the Trojan Horse, expect without the horse.

Well trojan horse without the horse is just trojan, but I'm not sure what a condom has to do with computer security.

Unless of course you are talking about a metaphorical condom, which would catch metaphorical semen, but that still really is pretty useless in a conversation about backdoors in computer softwate.

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/li...-lnxw01SELinux

No, I mean... a backdoor in Linux is like...

if the Trojans, instead of hiding in a horse, would have just knocked on the door and said "Hi, we want to kill you".

Edit: Perhaps a Trojan Horse made of glass works better as an allegory.