Shutting out intruders with AppArmor
PROTECTIVE ARMOR
When an attacker succeeds in infecting a victim’s system, the attacker inherits the victim’s privileges. App Armor beats the attack by reducing the potential victim’s privileges to a minimum.
Novell views AppArmor [1] as an easily configurable but effective protection system for Linux. According to the vendor, AppArmor competes with SE Linux, which has been part of the Suse distribution for quite a while now, although lacking the policies needed to run it. Whereas SE Linux is comparatively difficult to configure, but implements comprehensive MACs (Mandatory Access Control), AppArmor focuses on restricting the scope of individual applications. The Task It is an unfortunate fact that many programs suffer from bugs, and web applications are particularly badly hit. Most software is not coded by security specialists, though it may be publicly accessible via the web, and this makes it an easy target for attackers. If an attacker finds a programming error in an application, they can typically exploit the error, thus gaining access to the target system.
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Armbian 24.11 Released with Expanded Hardware Support
If you've been waiting for Armbian to support OrangePi 5 Max and Radxa ROCK 5B+, the wait is over.
-
SUSE Renames Several Products for Better Name Recognition
SUSE has been a very powerful player in the European market, but it knows it must branch out to gain serious traction. Will a name change do the trick?
-
ESET Discovers New Linux Malware
WolfsBane is an all-in-one malware that has hit the Linux operating system and includes a dropper, a launcher, and a backdoor.
-
New Linux Kernel Patch Allows Forcing a CPU Mitigation
Even when CPU mitigations can consume precious CPU cycles, it might not be a bad idea to allow users to enable them, even if your machine isn't vulnerable.
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.5 Released
Notify your friends, loved ones, and colleagues that the latest version of RHEL is available with plenty of enhancements.
-
Linux Sees Massive Performance Increase from a Single Line of Code
With one line of code, Intel was able to increase the performance of the Linux kernel by 4,000 percent.
-
Fedora KDE Approved as an Official Spin
If you prefer the Plasma desktop environment and the Fedora distribution, you're in luck because there's now an official spin that is listed on the same level as the Fedora Workstation edition.
-
New Steam Client Ups the Ante for Linux
The latest release from Steam has some pretty cool tricks up its sleeve.
-
Gnome OS Transitioning Toward a General-Purpose Distro
If you're looking for the perfectly vanilla take on the Gnome desktop, Gnome OS might be for you.
-
Fedora 41 Released with New Features
If you're a Fedora fan or just looking for a Linux distribution to help you migrate from Windows, Fedora 41 might be just the ticket.