Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 3 Dec 2008 12:35:43 +0800 | From | "Peter Teoh" <> | Subject | Re: New Security Features, Please Comment |
| |
On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 12:02 PM, Geoffrey McRae <geoff@rabidhost.com> wrote: > > My initial concept is to implement a HTTP server that is designed from > the ground up to use this new functionallity. Each server that has been > pre-forked will just sit there until the parent sets its uid/gid and > hands it the request to handle. >
I think the above is the core issue - you have something privileged to be executed. So why not execute it in a small, code-verifiable implementation, just like the Privilege Separation idea of SSH?
http://www.citi.umich.edu/u/provos/papers/privsep.pdf
Everything is done in userspace. SInce the privileged component is small, it is easy to verify for correctness. The rest execute with lesser privilege.
Recently, the hypervisor has been used to implement this verifiable source code concept: see:
http://www.ghs.com/news/20081117_integrity_EAL6plus_security.html
where GreenHill achieved EAL6 certification - as it built its entire kernel on top of the hypervisor. (called Separation Kernel, conceptually similar to that of Privilege Separation in SSH).
Just my 2cts :-).
-- Regards, Peter Teoh
Ernest Hemingway - "Never mistake motion for action."
| |