Red Hat Pushes For CC Certification By Year's End 183
Ridgelift writes "This article indicates Red Hat Linux is about to receive certification under the Common Criteria (CC) Scheme worldwide. This has been a long road for Red Hat, and 'once successfully certified in the UK, Red Hat products will be recognised as certified and approved by information security agencies from all 19 countries participating in the Common Criteria program.' This means Red Hat will sit alongside Sun Solaris, HP-UX and IBM's AIX."
Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:5, Informative)
This means Red Hat will sit alongside Sun Solaris, HP-UX and IBM's AIX
Red Hat will also sit along side Windows 2000 which also has the Common Criteria certification. See the press release:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2002/oct0 2/10-29CommonCriteriaPR.asp [microsoft.com]
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:2, Informative)
Incidentally, any security product can be evaluated under the CC; there are many functional requirements that wouldn't immediately come to mind (e.g., anonymity r
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:5, Funny)
Microsoft: "This operating system has numerous vulnerability exploits and poor compatability with old drivers and applications."
CC board: "Well, whaddaya know, so it does!"
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:2)
The Common Criteria seems to be at least as much about money as security.
If I were concerned about security, I'd start looking at OpenBSD first, FreeBSD next.
But those OS's don't seem to be on the CCEVS list.
It's ridiculous that a monetary hurdle will arbitrarily exclude excellent secure OS's from consideration while including less secure OS's that do little more than buy certification.
IMHO an impartial standards body like NIST ought to periodically evaluate OS's for security, performance and reliabili
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:5, Informative)
Easy enough to fly your OS in those restrictions...
Remember the Orange Book C2 security for Windows NT? That was only for a standalone box - no net, no modem.
The Rainbow Books were a forerunner to the CC - which represented a harmonizing of the Red/Orange Books with Canadian Govt InfoSec standards.
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:1)
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:2)
In reality, EALs does not certifies the security, it certifies functionality of security-related applications. So EAL certification does not say "this product does not have security vulnerabilities" (no certification can), it sais "this product implements such methods of access control, such authentication procedures, etc".
Do you even work on servers? (Score:2)
You dont really work on servers, do you?
MS Troll Alert!!!!! (Score:2)
Anyway if you wern't totally ignornt, you would know that it is very painful to install any edition of Windows that currently ships without bug infested IE. You obviously failed even your Minesweeper Consultant and Solitaire Expert exam.
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:3, Funny)
i hear WindowsME just missed CC by a whisker.
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:5, Funny)
Microsoft: This is WinME, we claim it is shit.
CC Official:sniff, sniff. Yep, sure is. Stamp!
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:2)
Crap. OS or application has to achieve standard-specified level of security functionality.
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:1)
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:3, Insightful)
Soooo, I see the CC simply as a way to get government contracts for your product/software if you have enough money to front on the certification ($200k to $millions). So basically, a product evaluated at some EAL doesn't mean a whole lot IMHO.
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:5, Informative)
For example, Windows 2000 was evaluated against all the security assurance requirements in the EAL4 package (plus a few). There were also a ton of security functional requirements based on what Windows 2000 provides (e.g., identification, authentication, audit, etc.). For details, read the Target of Evaluation Description section of the ST at http://niap.nist.gov/cc-scheme/CCEVS_VID402-ST.pd
Red Hat's Enterprise Linux will have their own ST.
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:5, Insightful)
No deviation is allowed from the exact hardware, software and network configuration that is the certification target. Yes, this includes additional security patches. That would constitute a new platform for certification - at an additional expense of may hundreds of thousands USD.
I suppose that it makes a decent benchmark of sorts. Still, its mainly a diligence measure for getting into Govt purchasing schedules, and has little to do with a practical or useful evaluation of the actual security of an OS.
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:3, Informative)
Sure, doesn't have a thing to do with the actual security of an OS. Next time, why not take the time to read about the spec [nist.gov] for Common Criteria certification before making such an idiotic suggestion.
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm pretty familiar with the NIST publications on the subject. I use the NIST standrds as testing guidelines on a near daily basis. I readily attest to the value of these.
CC testing of implementations are not portable to diferent environments, and unless you duplicate the testing platform and environment as spec'ed, you are not running a certified platform.
No one is likely to ever run the spec'ed platform/environment.
It is a benchmark - like any other. Good for selling to the Government markets that have established CC.
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:1)
Because having been on Slashdot since it was a chummy little group means something in the larger scope of things.
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:2)
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:1, Offtopic)
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:1)
So as fast as today's hardware evolves and changes these certs must expire pretty quick?
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:2)
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:2)
Why waste money in a certificate of security that is sooo useless?
Money better spent elsewere for sure.
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:5, Funny)
While I can't remember if it was specifically Windows 2000 with the Common Criteria or Windows NT with the Orange Book Cert, I do remember that the system configuration which won them the cert was with no network connection, no floppy drives, and no CDROM drives on the box that was tested. In essence, no non-keyboard input methods. (They couldn't guarantee the OS would stay clean long enough to get the cert.)
Basically, the certification was useless as soon as you configured the box to do any useful processing on the machine. Then again, many would say that is the same of Windows itself.
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:5, Interesting)
It is a step above C1 - no attempt made to secure the platform!
C2 does have fairly strigent requirements regarding the separation of roles and audit history by role/principal.
All of which are guaranteed in a standalone config.
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:5, Informative)
C1 (about equivalent to CC's EAL 2) does describe some very minimal security requirements, but the system doesn't need to distinguish individual users. C2 (~= EAL 3) adds a little more, including the requirement to identify individual users. The C levels require Discressionary Access Controls (basically, ACLs).
The B levels (B1, B2, and B3, roughly corresponding to EALs 4, 5, 6) add Mandatory Access Control - basically, the ability to label something at a sensitivity level and to have users have clearances to only read things at at or below a certain level, and write things at or ablove a certain level (can't have a Top Secret user writing unclassified files). A level (EAL 7) requires a formal mathematical validation of the system.
Re:Windows 2000 is certified as well (Score:4, Funny)
A pity (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:A pity (Score:5, Informative)
Re:A pity (Score:1)
Re:A pity (Score:1, Funny)
Re:A pity (Score:2)
Re:A pity (Score:1)
Re:A pity (Score:2)
Re:A pity (Score:1)
Re:A pity (Score:1, Funny)
LOL! True, very true. At least with Microsoft we can be assured of timely secure patches being released when a vulnerability crops up. Without corporations there would be chaos!
SuSE? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:SuSE? (Score:1)
SuSE [suse.com]
Re:SuSE? (Score:1)
SuSE already have it, next Debian? (Score:5, Interesting)
Next question, will someone fund a community owned distro to get this certification?
(i.e. Debian etc.)
At last... (Score:4, Interesting)
It mightn't mean much to some places, but for government organisations, it's a big step to getting it in more places than just using it for "development toys".
One small step (Score:4, Interesting)
Since the article didn't mention it... (Score:5, Informative)
you can read about the Common Criteria here [nist.gov].
Unfortunately, the other site [commoncriteria.org] has been shut down.
SuSE Linux (Score:4, Informative)
anything changed? (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeah right... (Score:5, Funny)
drip...drip...
Excuse me, I've got sarcasm dripping from my chin...
Re:Yeah right... (Score:4, Funny)
Maybe you should ask Darl to warn you further in advance next time.
Playing the corporate game (Score:5, Insightful)
People should really get it through their skulls that this is not going to help and that talent may not be in their brokerage system already when looking for it (and so they miss out).
One more example of commodifying the _wrong_ thing. Can pay in the short term but ughugh the longer term....
When something happens, formalizing it usually means restricting it from "just" happening further. Mkay
What do you mean? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's not so much that the people who actually check the security care what OS it is... it's the people who approve the classification of information systems, etc. you know, pencil pushers, that
Validating the Kernel Development Model (Score:5, Interesting)
"The Common Criteria,
Does that mean that the US Gov. will be officially saying that the Kernel development model is OK ?
Re:Validating the Kernel Development Model (Score:2)
quick, change the history books. (Score:2)
> source development model that they would be giving the ok for.
Actually, it's the "open development model". The term "OpenSource" was created in 1998. Before this, many Free Software projects used the open development model. Linux was the first big one and it's use of this model really took off in 1992.
(and anyway, they're not certifying a development model, they're certifying a specific box set.)
Just RH's implementation (Score:2)
OTOH, I guess it would not be a major problem for another vendor to go down this same path with Linux, as long as they can demonstrate a similar implementation process.
The level matters; most CC certs are useless (Score:5, Interesting)
Even the Windows 2000 EAL4 certification only protects against "inadvertent or casual attempts to breach the system security." No real security here. For more info, read Jonathan Shapiro's article [jhu.edu].
Re:The level matters; most CC certs are useless (Score:3, Informative)
EAL4 is the highest Windows, or any other commercial off-the-shelf application will ever get. Anything higher requires design verification from the planning stages and is intended for custom built applications for specific purposes.
KungFUnix certification (Score:5, Funny)
KungFUnix proudly introduces CUP, Certified Unix Pimp certification. Now you too can study and memorize 50 common criteria books we select and get kickbacks from in order to achieve your goal of adding the word CUP to your signature.
NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED!
That's right act now and send us 2,000.00 (US), and we'll gladly present you with information on obtaining this new and exciting certification. So what can you do with a CUP certification:
Re:KungFUnix certification (Score:2)
"Yes sir. I am the most qualified for this job. In fact, I am an officially certified UNIX Pimp!"
If someone said that to me, I'd hire them on the spot
Re:KungFUnix certification (Score:2)
In fact, I am an officially certified *NIX Pimp!
When do I start?
Other Distributions? (Score:4, Interesting)
And with the support that Linux has gotten from the NSA, through SE-Linux, I would think a lot of the in-depth work on Linux has been covered.
Ok I'll throw one in: RedHat is dying :-) (Score:3, Interesting)
I'll tell you what their problem is: they're the first. The first always loses. They get to fight the hardest their own community, they get all the surprises boomeranged back to them, they just get everything first. Even if they don't really innovate. And _that_ is going to kill them. They don't know how to react any more (heck no one does) and so they jump back into corporate logic... which they were seen as being a counter to.
I don't know I don't have much love for them but neither do I have any hate towards them. But I feel that the 5th or so is going to be the one that matters 5 years from now. Heck it may be a BeOS clone or a BSD even so. IMHO, we're now at a point where armies die, believe it or not.
Footnotes are recorded right now.
Re:Ok I'll throw one in: RedHat is dying :-) (Score:1)
Know thy Linux distro history : RedHat is not the first anything. Their distro is *not* the first Linux distro (Caldera's was), and RH isn't even the first Linux distro maker to shaft its users and antagonize everybody in the community (again, Caldera-now-SCO is).
This said, you're right : the first always lose, as Caldera/SCO has proven for years and will brilliantly prove again very soon thanks to IBM.
Re:Ok I'll throw one in: RedHat is dying :-) (Score:2)
(they were a fork of redhat though but they could have be the center of Linux today yes)
As far as the thing with IBM, well I'm enjoying the soap and I feel it's a lot of FUD but we'll see. I wonder if they will ever challenge BSD. Once they do so, sell your stock
Re:Ok I'll throw one in: RedHat is dying :-) (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ok I'll throw one in: RedHat is dying :-) (Score:2, Informative)
Yggdrasil was the first Linux vendor to have a commercial CD-ROM distribution. Fall of '93.
There's an InfoMagic 'UNIX' CD that had a kernal 0.99.10 on it from July of '93.
Some of us were there.
Re:Ok I'll throw one in: RedHat is dying :-) (Score:2, Informative)
Actually Slack was the first distro
No it wasn't. SLS was the first linux distro.
Re:Ok I'll throw one in: RedHat is dying :-) (Score:2, Informative)
Not even close. The first Linux distribution was H.J. Lu's boot/root floppy combo, and I think even MCC+ came before SLS.
Re: Actually wasn't Yggdrasil the first distro? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Ok I'll throw one in: RedHat is dying :-) (Score:2)
At least respond then. Controversy and debate are good things at least in my world they are.
EAL4...so what (Score:5, Informative)
A profile for the evaluation, and the assurance level to which you achieve that profile.
So if your profile is essentially "can boot" you can probably achieve that with a high level of confidence. All this talk of EAL4 is pointless unless you are told what the profile is.
In the best case, this only means that RH (and Windows, for that matter) could be used in a system carrying information classified at a single level, say, "secret".
In no (normal) circumstance would either RH or Windows be used to handle information classified at two different levels, such as secret and unclassified. If you want to do that, you need to use Trusted Solaris or some other evaluated "Trusted" operating system. Getting a evaluation for a system that can label information and keep different types of information apart (B1 or B2 in DOD Orange Book parlance) is a whole different ball of wax than what RH and Windows received (C2).
Re:EAL4...so what (Score:2)
Very good point often missed! (Score:3, Informative)
A CC certification consists of two parts:
An "assurance level", and either a "security target" or a "protection profile".
A protection profile is a sort of a "standardized security target". A description of a number of requirements that you evaluate your system against. Whereas, a "security target" is something you yourself write, if you do not want to certify your
Meh (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Meh (Score:3, Interesting)
"Speaking as someone who works for the government"
Well, speaking as someone who works for a government's CC certification scheme, EAL2 actually does give you some assurance, and I've personally seen companies stumble in getting it. At that level, you're taking a closer look at the developer's design, configuration management and testing; you're making sure they conduct a proper vulnerability analysis, and devising your own penetration tests. It's a significant jump from EAL1.
Re:Meh (Score:1)
Solaris, HP-UX and AIX... (Score:2, Funny)
the main distinguishing charactaristic being that almost no-one uses them any more...
NOT "alongside", but "a long way behind" (Score:5, Informative)
Note that EAL2 is something that provides essentially no assurance of security. You can find details of this in Google's cache [216.239.39.104] (www.commoncriteria.org is no longer alive).
RH Linux EAL: 2 MS Windows 2000 EAL: 4 (Score:5, Interesting)
What gets me is, if it's so expensive and time consuming to do this, why not go straight for level 4 certification? Unless it was unachievable... Vendors know ahead of time if they'll pass or not, all the criteria is there for the public to review. You don't submit until you are already sure you'll pass. Obviously Linux is not EAL 4 ready. Windows 2000 is not only EAL 4 but also augmented with ALC FLR 3.
Who is going to notice an effortless to achieve EAL 2?
Re:RH Linux EAL: 2 MS Windows 2000 EAL: 4 (Score:1)
It costs time and money to do this and what for? All the 'trusted OS' systems have to be rigorously certified on specific hardware and with a specific version of driver, etc. This limits their usefullness. They lag the technology curve by a considerable amount of time. (for example, certification occurs on a 2.4.21 kernel--but if your newest network card requires 2.4.23 too bad)
NSA has wor
Re:RH Linux EAL: 2 MS Windows 2000 EAL: 4 (Score:2)
For example, EAL4 requires a "Developer defined life-cycle model". That just doesn't merge well with Linus approach of "when it's done".
RH grows up (Score:2, Insightful)
Think of it this way: lots of tech people get certifications such as CCNA, MCSE, etc. in order to get through the hiring process. The actual certifications may be meaningless in any number of ways, but the hiring people insist on them.
Now, think of this: RH, as a fictitious person (a corporation) needs to get this cert so it can get that cool job. They want to get hired for that big enterpri
Gah (Score:1)
Its form testing is useless for security (Score:5, Interesting)
Security cannot be determined from simply doing a suite of tests, and determining that it must be secure if the tester was unable to break in. The biggest variable that affects security is the administration of the machines ... and this applies to all systems, BSD, Linux, Solaris ... and yes, even MS Windows. Even OpenBSD clearly states their history of security (note, they never claim that is is secure, only that it has been to a certain degree) is based on the default install. Change it in any way, and all bets are off.
Security is not a thing you can just buy. Likewise it cannot be an attribute or property of a thing you can buy (or download). Security is in how you go about every aspect of the way you work, and not just in computers and networks. Social engineering is still a very workable way to access what you are not authorized to access. Poor passwords are incredibly common, for example (spammers are now using password guessing successfully to log into SMTP AUTH and MSA mail ports to submit their garbage ... they already have your userid). People are the weak link.
So ... IMHO ... the Common Criteria Scheme is nothing more than a bunch of feel-good paperwork for PHBs. Unfortunately, it's what PHBs want to see, so vendors like Red Hat do need to play into this BS just to get some sales. But it doesn't tell you squat about real security.
Re:Its form testing is useless for security (Score:2)
The CC have nothing to do with security in the sense you are talking about.
They are all about trust and assurance, and about evaluation of security procedures. For example, documentation takes a central role, as does version management during the development process.
It's got nothing to do with stuff like default configurations, open ports, buffer overflows or what have you. It just tackles the problem on an entirely different level.
Re:Winning and keeping score (Score:1)
Scores are what we expect to get when the game is about the score. Football is about what the score is. Pittsburgh just about won the game today when they made a touchdown that put them ahead near the end of the game. But then Cincinnati turned around and scored a last minute touchdown. The score is what counts.
Those who think that the score is what counts in computer security are part of the problem. The score is nothing more than a lead. Track record counts for more in actuality, but even that does
Get the specs... (Score:4, Informative)
KDE... (Score:3, Funny)
How relevant is a Cert of this nature to Linux ? (Score:2, Insightful)
For an OS like Linux, thats always changing and evolving, how relevant is a Cert of this nature ? In an OS like Windoze where there are very little ( or far and few ) feature updates, between fairly long drawn out release cycles one can understand that each version being certified can mean something.
Re:About certs (Score:1)
Re:About certs (Score:2, Offtopic)
Now the CCIE tract is more for thery and for me it was exposure to old school antiquated techs like IPX, frame relay and RIP to name a few. Many a CCIE spends there days working out thery and big broad strokes of a Network Arch not plunking away at a keybo
Re:About certs (Score:1, Offtopic)
Now CPR certification, that's an important one.
Re:Climb up the ladder, you leave the bottom rungs (Score:1)
If you're talking about 'Longhorn,' then it's Windows 2007(/+).
...
I think I should add a 'You insensitive Clod!' here for the sake of 'fitting in.'