IP: NSA's SElinux Type Enforcement patented by SCC

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Simon Higgs <simon@higgs.com>
Date: Sat, 15 Jun 2002 00:48:13 -0700
To: farber@cis.upenn.edu
Subject: NSA's SElinux Type Enforcement patented by SCC

From: http://lwn.net/Articles/2376/

SELinux is a distribution produced by the U.S. National Security Agency. It
is based on the Linux Security Module architecture (which is not yet part
of the 2.5 kernel). SELinux provides a whole set of mandatory access
control features to protect parts of the system from each other. There is
no "root" user in SELinux. Even if a server process is compromised, it is
highly limited in the damage it can do to the rest of the system.

According to the license page, SELinux is freely distributable under the
terms of the GPL. It looks like a high-quality and useful contribution to
the Linux community.

There is a potential problem, however. Much of the actual work in the
implementation of SELinux was done by Secure Computing Corporation (SCC).
SCC, in its implementation of SELinux, used a technology that it calls type
enforcement. As it turns out, SCC has a patent on this technology.

[more] http://lwn.net/Articles/2376/



Best Regards,

Simon

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