Summary: Every security hook in the Linux kernel. Hopefully.

This week I had an insanely abitious idea for my presentation at LinuxFest Northwest -- to cover each and every security aspect of the Linux kernel in one hour. I was specifically going to avoid everything in user space. No talk about daemons, configuration, authentication, nada. Just security from the kernel's point of view. Things you could do to add security, things you could do wrong to create security problems.

Well, if you ask the folks that showed up if it was a success, you will probably get a lot of different answers. You see, the presentation ended up being 130 pages. That's generally considered to be a bit excessive for one hour. (Most other 1 hour presentations had 15-30 slides.) So suffice it to say, I was racing through like a ferrett on several tins of Think Geek caffene mints[1].

So, for all those people who couldn't attend this years Northwest LinuxFest[2], I've put it online at

http://www.ifokr.org/bri/presentations/lfnw-2003/

Below you'll find the text extract of the presentation. It's not nearly as readable as the online version[3], but it's fun nonetheless.

Lastly, if anyone will be at Real World Linux, I'll be giving a talk entitled "VPNs and Crypto Tunnels" this Wednesday. Stop by and say hi - I'll be around most of the day.

NOTES:

[1] Man, these things can really come in handy.

[2] You missed a hell of a good time...

[3] Bullet points are lost, etc etc etc.

Bri Hatch is Chief Hacker at Onsight, Inc and author of Hacking Linux Exposed and Building Linux VPNs. He now knows better than to attempt 130 pages in 60 minutes. It was damned fun, but he's still drinking (water) like a fish to get his voice back in shape. Bri can be reached at bri@hackinglinuxexposed.com.

Copyright Bri Hatch, 2003

This is the April 27, 2003 issue of the Linux Security: Tips, Tricks, and Hackery newsletter. If you wish to subscribe, visit http://lists.onsight.com/ or send email to Linux_Security-request@lists.onsight.com.