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SELinux
Want to know how to make Linux really secure? Security Enhanced Linux (SE Linux), a system of security policies developed by the NSA, let you secure Linux at every level from the kernel up. Find out how EnGarde Secure Linux and others build and maintain a truly secure server environment.
Source: www.Linuxsecurity.com - Posted by Ryan Berens
2007 was an interesting year for SELinux. Many issues were important and gained exposure, but what did you, the reader have to say about the most important articles in SELinux? There are many ways to judge this and one of them is by listing the most popular articles as chosen by our readers over the course of the year, based on hits. It isn't the only answer, but certainly an interesting one.
Click through to see the list of the Top SELinux stories on Linuxsecurity.com for 2007.
Also: For a COMPLETE list of all the SELinux articles that have ever appeared on LinuxSecurity.com, go here
Easy to follow and organized by year, it's one of many, many resources avaialable at EnGardelinux.org with regards to SELinux.
Source: SearchEnterpriseLinux.com - Posted by Ryan Berens
This is one of the best overviews on some misconceptions and trends regarding SELinux that we've seen in awhile. If you are just beginning to get a feel for SELInux, or still aren't sure what it is, read this article.
In the column that follows, author and SELinux expert Frank Mayer will walk you through five of the ways that this venerable Linux security technology may surprise you.
By now, most people in the Linux world have heard of Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux). Since its initial release by the National Security Agency in 1999, SELinux has become a standard part of the Linux kernel and a supported capability in many Linux distributions including Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5.
Source: EnterpriseNetworkingPlanet - Posted by Bill Keys
Last week we took the eagle's eye view of the principles behind SELinux. Today we'll dig a bit more deeply into SELinux policies, and then fire up Fedora 8 and see what SELinux looks like in practice. I recommend using the latest Fedora version as a SELinux training tool, because Fedora has the most mature implementation and userspace tools. Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS, the leading Red Hat clone, have similar SELinux setups to Fedora. Gentoo also has a nice SELinux implementation. I don't recommend starting from scratch. Start with a working setup, and then plan to spend considerable time learning your way around it, because it is a big complex beast.
SELinux is a huge security framework but this articles does a good job at taking a look at one part at a time. The next time a program is not working correctly with SELinux turned on, try to debugging the problem and add some SELinux policy.
Source: Enterprisenetworkingplanet.com - Posted by Ryan Berens
Wanted to learn a few more tips on SELinux and get a feel for what it does? Carla Schroeder chimes in again regarding SELinux as a whole and its policies:
An SELinux policy has no concept of an all-powerful superuser, but only what is allowed and what is not allowed. It takes away the destructive potential of root. A successful intrusion will be confined to the process that it compromises, and will not be able to escalate beyond it. Sounds a bit like a chroot jail, doesn't it?
Fedora takes a some time and interviews Dan Walsh, one of the project leads on SELinux development. They ask him a couple questions about SELinux, open source and what he's been doing at Red Hat:
We all appreciate that when we turn on our Linux systems they're pretty secure. Thanks to continuing improvements to SELinux, it is increasingly easy for users to take advantage of this powerful security tool. Read on to find an interview with Daniel Walsh, the principal developer of SELinux in Fedora from Red Hat, where he tells us more about what SELinux does and how it's improved in Fedora 8. Also included are some screenshots which show-off the new policy creation GUI.
Yuichi Nakamura has announced the release of version 2.2.0 of SELinux Policy Editor (SEEdit). This release includes support for Fedora 8 and embedded systems. The performance of the simplified policy compiler has been improved, and it also now supports cross compilation of policy.
Do you like using these types of SELinux editing tools? The purpose of theses tools is to help make administrating a system with SELinux enabled easier. Do you feel they help?
One of our featured blogs, Dan Walsh provides a HOWTO on creating an SELinux policy.
In this blog I will actually walk through the Samba SELinux policy. As you know Policy is made up of three files, File Context (FC) Type Enforcement (TE) and an Interface file (IF)
This is an extremely thorough and detailed overview.
Just how much is security, especially in high-demand Government sectors, going to be driven and how is SELinux going to play a part?
This is a very interesting analysis on how SELinux has the opportunity to be so effective at locking down a system, it could devalue the current break up of security solutions.
Interest in multi-level security in the intelligence and Defense agencies seems to be high right now, because it would allow analysts to access networks of multiple security levels with one machine. Now (so we hear) analysts may have two or three PCs in their office, one for each security level.
The case he makes is that SELinux has the potential to negate these different levels and systems. Could SELinux have that kind of effect or are high-demand users still going to expect multiple systems?
Source: Search Enterprise Linux - Posted by Ryan Berens
Configuring high-end SELinux (Security-enhanced Linux) policies can be a daunting challenge to system administrators, especially those who are new to the concepts and processes. But there are a number of useful tools available that will help you write, analyze and report on your policy. In this tip we'll look at one of these tools: SETools, a free open source product from Tresys Technology.
This takes you through the capabilities of SETools, installing on your system and testing it out. With some emphasis on graphical tools and varied capabilities, this is a very useful resource.
This issue has been bantered around for almost a month now, and it seems that when they are addressing the future of the security in the Kernel, many different issues are still developing. As he states in the article:
Last night, another developer, Thomas Fricaccia, urged that "a free and open operating system should preserve as much freedom for the end-user as possible. ... 'Freedom' includes the power to do bad things to yourself by, for example, making poor choices in security frameworks. This possible and permitted end result shouldn't be the concern of kernel developers."
So how far can this discussion go? Is too much emphasis being placed on the kernel instead of the applications? Will this continue to be discussed this feverishly?
