SELinux In Linux 6.6 Removes References To Its Origins At The US NSA

[phoronix]

Phoronix: SELinux In Linux 6.6 Removes References To Its Origins At The US NSA

Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) has been part of the mainline kernel for two decades to provide a security module implementing access control security policies and is now widely-used for enhancing the security of production Linux servers and other systems. Those that haven't been involved with Linux for a long time may be unaware that SELinux originates from the US National Security Agency (NSA). But now with Linux 6.6 the NSA references are being removed...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/SELinux-Drops-NSA-References

[rclark]

Doesn't make sense to me. NSA was the original author, and yes SEL has changed over the years, but the original authors still should be referenced. Strange world we live in now though as history is being rewritten, and in some cases erased.

[fitzie]

just a reminder that the scandals are primarily spying on americans in violation of the constitution and the law. they are still doing this to this day.

[andyprough]

Twenty years is a long time. Makes me wonder how many innocuous looking backdoors they've tried to stuff into it.

With Snowden safely exiled to Russia and Assange safely locked up in prison and facing extradition, the NSA boys have got to be feeling like the world has been set right again.

[Paradigm Shifter]

But hey, as others have said in threads here you shouldn't worry unless you have something to hide, right?

Never mind that many laws are written in such a way that you're wrong no matter what do you, if the authority decides they want to prosecute/persecute you.

[You-]

Strange world we live in now though as history is being rewritten, and in some cases erased.

None of that is happening here. The copyrights and acknowledgements remain, but calling it "NSA Selinux" as if it is a specific branded product is being changed.

When Oracle bought Sun, they didnt keep the names of products like Open Office or Java as Sun Microsystems' Open Office, Java etc.

[sarmad]

It's a bad technology anyway. They may as well just drop it altogether rather than only dropping the NSA reference. It's bad because it's over complicated, and when something is over complicated it leaves room for mistakes that result in security holes. I remember needing to turn it off whenever I needed to test my web server back in the days when I was using Fedora before getting fed up with SELinux and jumping distros.

[kylew77]

I've worked at a few shops that specifically disable SELinux to my shock because it is so difficult to work with <facepam>. If only it was easy to implement something like OpenBSD pledge and unveil kernel and userland wide in Linux...

[Teggs]

I think the full name provides valuable information, and the patch should be refused. Ideally, no one should have to obtain knowledge about every piece of software's history to be aware when known bad actors have been contributing to its code, let alone authored it to begin with.

[espi]

Doesn't make sense to me. NSA was the original author, and yes SEL has changed over the years, but the original authors still should be referenced. Strange world we live in now though as history is being rewritten, and in some cases erased.

Everything will be tracked forever by git anyways. Technically the story could be rewritten, but its not the case.