Security Basics mailing list archives
Re: Linux Distribution Recomendation
From: peter () devbox adamantix org (Peter Busser)
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 11:22:31 +0100
Hi!
So ... what is a normal Linux or Unix system and how is the security rather poor ?
A normal Linux or UNIX system is a system which provides the standard UNIX interface. UNIX was designed for use in a benign research environment. The users were supposed to be friendly. And the system administrator was supposed to be trustworthy. If you hack root, you own the system. If you work on a top-secret document, root can read it, copy it, change it and delete it. If you forget to set the attributes, then every user on the system may read and copy it. Even if you do everything right, there is no way the system will prevent you from making mistakes which may expose the document to other users. In other words, the security policy depends on the user, not the system. Because the access control is left at the user's discretion, this kind of system is called DAC (Discretionary Access Control). Traditional UNIX access control is DAC. High-security systems require a more advanced and fine grained access control system. The security policy is imposed by the system, not by the user. It should be able to protect top-secret documents against root, if necessary. Since obeying the policy is mandated by the system, this kind of access control is called MAC (Mandatory Access Control). UNIX normally does not have any MAC, except for chroot() (but that is a very primitive and limited MAC that does not apply to root). Secure level, jail, etc. are all different kinds of MAC. More flexible MAC policies can be provided by things like Systrace, SELinux and RSBAC (which is used in Adamantix). Most UNIX vendors also ship UNIX versions with MAC extensions (such as Trusted Solaris).
I would consider a FreeBSD system to be a normal Unix system in too days perspective and it's level of security as compared with other operating systems is very secure.
Maybe todays perspective is not a good reference. Most of todays systems have been designed for usability and/or performance, not security. The operating systems that have been designed with security in mind (such as e.g. Multics and GEMSOS) generally provide a much higher level of security than normal UNIX or Linux systems. Compared to those systems, a
So the way I look at it, if you came up with a base line for security based on available out of the box OS you can install. The Unix and Linux version would make up the top 30% for being the most secure while Microsoft is falling farther behind.
That depends on how you look at it. If you look at the Common Criteria certification (FYI, CC being a security related certification), you might conclude that at this moment Microsoft Windows provides more security than Linux (MS-Windows having CC AEL 4 vs. SuSE Linux having AEL3+). CC is far from being a perfect comparisson. But it is still more reliable than anecdotal ``evidence''. Groetjes, Peter Busser --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethical Hacking at the InfoSec Institute. Mention this ad and get $545 off any course! All of our class sizes are guaranteed to be 10 students or less to facilitate one-on-one interaction with one of our expert instructors. Attend a course taught by an expert instructor with years of in-the-field pen testing experience in our state of the art hacking lab. Master the skills of an Ethical Hacker to better assess the security of your organization. Visit us at: http://www.infosecinstitute.com/courses/ethical_hacking_training.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current thread:
- Re: Linux Distribution Recomendation, (continued)
- Re: Linux Distribution Recomendation Tim Flowers (Mar 02)
- Re: Linux Distribution Recomendation Brian Shaw (Mar 03)
- Re: Linux Distribution Recomendation lucian (Mar 03)
- Re: Linux Distribution Recomendation Peter Busser (Mar 04)
- Re: Linux Distribution Recomendation Alvin Oga (Mar 08)
- Re: Linux Distribution Recomendation Peter Busser (Mar 11)
- Re: Linux Distribution Recomendation matt (Mar 12)
- Re: Linux Distribution Recomendation Peter Busser (Mar 12)
- Re: Linux Distribution Recomendation Michael Gale (Mar 08)
- RE: Linux Distribution Recomendation Rod Trent (Mar 09)
- Re: Linux Distribution Recomendation Peter Busser (Mar 11)
- Re: Linux Distribution Recomendation Byron Sonne (Mar 09)
- Re: Linux Distribution Recomendation Peter Busser (Mar 04)
- Re: Linux Distribution Recomendation Vincent (Mar 08)
- Re: Linux Distribution Recomendation Peter Busser (Mar 11)
- Re: Linux Distribution Recomendation Vincent (Mar 15)
- Re: Linux Distribution Recomendation Peter Busser (Mar 16)