Security-Enhanced Linux Project Background

Researchers in the Information Assurance Research Office of the National Security Agency (NSA) worked with Secure Computing Corporation (SCC) to develop a strong, flexible mandatory access control architecture based on Type Enforcement, a mechanism first developed for the LOCK system. The NSA and SCC developed two Mach-based prototypes of the architecture: DTMach and DTOS. The NSA and SCC then worked with the University of Utah's Flux research group to transfer the architecture to the Fluke research operating system. During this transfer, the architecture was enhanced to provide better support for dynamic security policies. This enhanced architecture was named Flask. The NSA is now integrating the Flask architecture into the Linux operating system to transfer the technology to a larger developer and user community.

Two papers provide background information for the project:

• The Inevitability of Failure: The Flawed Assumption of Security in Modern Computing Environments explains the need for mandatory access controls in operating systems.
• The Flask Security Architecture: System Support for Diverse Security Policies describes the operating system security architecture through its prototype implementation in the Fluke research operating system.