The intensive search for a more secure operating system has often left everyday, production computers far behind their experimental, research cousins. Now SELinux (Security Enhanced Linux) dramatically changes this. This best-known and most respected security-related extension to Linux embodies the key advances of the security field. Better yet, SELinux is available in widespread and popular distributions of the Linux operating system--including for Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and SUSE--all of it free and open source. SELinux emerged from research by the National Security Agency and implements classic strong-security measures such as role-based access controls, mandatory access controls, and fine-grained transitions and privilege escalation following the principle of least privilege. It compensates for the inevitable buffer overflows and other weaknesses in applications by isolating them and preventing flaws in one application from spreading to others. The scenarios that cause the most cyber-damage these days--when someone gets a toe-hold on a computer through a vulnerability in a local networked application, such as a Web server, and parlays that toe-hold into pervasive control over the computer system--are prevented on a properly administered SELinux system. The key, of course, lies in the words "properly administered." A system administrator for SELinux needs a wide range of knowledge, such as the principles behind the system, how to assign different privileges to different groups of users, how to change policies to accommodate new software, and how to log and track what is going on. And this is where SELinux is invaluable. Author Bill McCarty, a security consultant who has briefed numerous government agencies, incorporates his intensive research into SELinux into this small but information-packed book. Topics include:

• A readable and concrete explanation of SELinux concepts and the SELinux security model

• Installation instructions for numerous distributions

• Basic system and user administration

• A detailed dissection of the SELinux policy language

• Examples and guidelines for altering and adding policies

With SELinux, a high-security computer is within reach of any system administrator. If you want an effective means of securing your Linux system--and who doesn't?--this book provides the means.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 9 Ratings

Good Introduction but lacks advanced, how-to information. - 2005-04-07
Reviewer Rating:
Personally, I prefer books to focus either concepts or detailed implementation instructions not both. For complex topics like SELinux, you typically cannot fit the conceptual and pragmatic within one book. McCarty's SELINUX is no exception. SELINUX provides an excellent overview of concepts but struggles with policy implementation methods and procedures. I suspect the topic is simply too large for one volume. What implementation advice presented is clear and concise but you will have to search elsewhere for more detailed deployment advice.

Despite these issues, this book is recommended reading for anyone considering implementing SELinux. The conceptual overview is some of the best I've seen since SELinux got its start. Using charts, diagrams and examples, McCarty presents an excellent overview of the nuts and bolts of SELinux. Understanding the principles of Role-Based Access Control, Type Enforcement, and Security Objects is critical to both using SELinux and justifying its use. The latter may be a bigger hurdle than many anticipate. The chapters on these areas will arm you with sufficient understanding to make a clear case of why SELinux can and should be implemented in many Linux-based computing environments.

While there are brief examples throughout, the book's third chapter on SELinux installation presents a well-documented, step-by-step guide to installing SELinux. If you've never installed SELinux, these sections will prove very valuable. With clearly numbered steps and command line examples, you can have SELinux installed and configured with a default policy within an hour.

As a mix between the pragmatic and conceptual, SELINUX is a good start on this topic. Entry level SELinux users will probably not learn too much from this book, but if your are looking for a introduction to SELinux concepts along with some pragmatic advice for getting started, then this book may be for you.

vastly improved implementation - 2005-03-12
Reviewer Rating:
Selinux is a conscious attempt to fundamentally rework and improve linux security. Previously, or more to the point, in most current linux machines, the security was somewhat of an ad hoc approach. This is mitigated by a formidable array of open source IDS tools like Ethereal and Snort that let a sysadmin often successfully depend her network and machines.

But as the frequency and virulence of malware attacks has increased, the Selinux of this book may be a timely reinforcing of the operating system. As McCarty explains, this book is geared towards a sysadmin, as opposed to a programmer. It discusses the new things you should know. Especially the concepts of role based access model and of domains. The former has shades of DEC's VMS, which had a very mature implementation. Or those of you with mainframe experience may also recognise familiar ideas.

Programmers may find the book a little sparse, as mentioned above. But possibly McCarty is devising a sequel for them.

Not so good - 2009-02-27
Reviewer Rating:
This book is dated, so if you're looking for details on 2.6 kernel implementations you're going to be disappointed. Worse still, the book doesn't cover distributions that don't already have SELinux support. Overall I found the discussion of the theory of SELinux to be good, but implementation details were sorely lacking. Ultimately it didn't answer the questions I had (how do I install SELinux on Mandriva and configure it) so wasn't worth the price.

Great Overview to a Potentially Complex Topic - 2008-06-21
Reviewer Rating:
This book is a great introduction to the topic of SELinux because of the information on its developmental background and lucid description of the objectives, advantages and maintenance of a SELinux system. I would recommend this book to someone who has a firm grasp of basic security concepts and programming principles and is interested in getting exposure to the security enhanced model of Linux.

Quite short - 2007-07-17
Reviewer Rating:
Really only skimming over the problem, could be more in depth, since most online documentation about SELinux is really skimming over the subject too, or just overly dated.

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