Zack's Kernel News

Zack's Kernel News

Article from Issue 257/2022
Author(s):

In kernel news: The "Filesystem" System; Maintaining GitHub Kernel Forks; and Going In or Going Out?

The "Filesystem" System

Dov Murik from IBM posted some confidential computing (coco) patches. This is gussied-up marketing speak for "sandbox" (i.e., an isolated set of processes that implement security protections for whatever is going on inside). But, I'm not here to talk about coco.

The interesting thing was that Dov's patches used SecurityFS to provide the interface between the user and the secure area, which turned out to be controversial. SecurityFS came along about 15 years ago in the 2.6 timeframe in response to a frightening proliferation of homespun filesystems. The idea was for security modules to use the same SecurityFS application programming interface (API) and just do whatever insanity was boiling their brains in the back end. SecurityFS simply provided a consistent gateway so everyone's various concepts could be straightforwardly navigated by everyone else.

Greg Kroah-Hartman replied to Dov:

[...]

Use Express-Checkout link below to read the full article (PDF).

Buy this article as PDF

Express-Checkout as PDF
Price $2.95
(incl. VAT)

Buy Linux Magazine

SINGLE ISSUES
Print Issues
Digital Issues
 
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Print Subs
Digisubs
 
TABLET & SMARTPHONE APPS
Get it on Google Play

US / Canada

Get it on Google Play

UK / Australia

Related content

  • Drone Brain Goes Open Source

    DARPA and NICTA release the code for the ultra-secure microkernel system used in aerial drones.

    more »
  • Linux News

    Updates on Technologies, Trends, and Tools

    more »
  • Kernel Tips

    Worried about a recent security exploit? Want to take advantage of a new hardware feature? You don’t need to be a Linux expert to patch and compile the Linux kernel. We'll show you how to get started.

    more »
  • Minix 3

    Minix is often viewed as the spiritual predecessor of Linux, but these two Unix cousins could never agree on the kernel design. Now a new Minix with a BSD-style free license is poised to attract a new generation of users.

    more »
  • Kernel News

    Chronicler Zack Brown reports on the NOVA filesystem, making system calls userspace only, and extending module support to plain executables. 

    more »
comments powered by Disqus

Visit Our Shop

Trial Subscription

Digital Subscription

Subscribe

Direct Download

Read full article as PDF:

Price $2.95

News

Tag Cloud

Administration Community Desktop Events Hardware Linux Linux Pro Magazine Mobile Programming Software Ubuntu Web Development Windows free software open source