Re: [tlug] NSA's super-secure Linux

[Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com>]

Jonathan Byrne wrote:
> Josh Glover (jmglov@example.com) wrote:
> 
> 
>>[1] There is no cabal
> 
> 
> There's No Such Agency, either, so the whole thing must
> be vaporware :-)
> 

:)

Interestingly enough, this just sprouted up on Security Focus's 
security-basics list:



From: Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com>
To: security-basics@example.com
Subject: Re: most secure Unix type


jeremy wrote:
 > HAH... you actually trust a distro, edited , modified and secured by
 > the NSA? Can we say backdoor, secret backdoor, have we forgotton the
 > governments policy is to DENY DENY....

Paranoia certainly *can* be a healthy thing, but in this case, you are 
making an assumption that the government gives a damn about what is on 
your box, which it almost certainly does not, unless you have a Muslim 
name. Also, according to their license page[1], the NSA releases SELinux 
under the GPL (or, in some cases, the BDSL), so that means the source is 
available. Read it, make sure there aren't backdoors in things like 
login. I am sure that people *do* read the source because of a (not 
unwarrented) distrust for the NSA, so backdoors probably have a pretty 
low probability of exisiting.

And thanks to this thread, you and I must be in an NSA database of 
people to watch. Thanks a lot! ;)


[1] http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/license.html


-- 
Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com>

Associate Systems Administrator
INCOGEN, Inc.