Security policies in trusted operating system
View Patent ↗A trusted computer system that offers Linux® compatibility and supports contemporary hardware speeds. It is designed to require no porting of common applications which run on Linux, to be easy to develop for, and to allow the use of a wide variety of modern development tools. The system is further designed to meet or exceed the Common Criteria EAL-5 or higher rating through incorporation of required security features, as well as a very high level of assurance for handling data at a wide range of sensitivity (e.g., classification) levels in a wide range of operational environments. This is achieved through the implementation of a well-layered operating system which has been designed from the ground up to enforce security, but which also supports Linux operating system functions and methods.
1. Computer program product stored on tangible computer readable media, the computer program product, when executed by a computer, providing:
a trusted operating system, the trusted operating system causing the computer to enforce four separate policies in the computer whenever any process attempts to access a file system object accessible by the computer, the enforcing preventing at least one of an unauthorized user and an unauthorized process from accessing the file system object, the policies comprising:
a mandatory security policy;
a mandatory integrity policy;
a discretionary access control policy; and,
a subtype policy.
2. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein:
the discretionary access policy provides discretionary access information for a file system object, the discretionary access information comprising read permissions, write permissions, and execute permissions; and,
the enforcing further comprising preventing at least one of an unauthorized user and an unauthorized process from accessing the file system object according to the discretionary access information.
3. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein:
the subtype policy further comprising providing subtype information for a file system object; and,
the enforcing further comprising preventing at least one of an unauthorized user and an unauthorized process from accessing the file system object according to the subtype information.
4. The computer program product of claim 1 , the trusted operating system further comprising covert channel protection, the covert channel protection preventing at least one of unintended signaling channels and illicit information flows.
5. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein:
the mandatory security policy provides at least one of a hierarchical security classification and an independent security category for each file system object; and,
the enforcing further comprising preventing at least one of an unauthorized user and an unauthorized process from reading from the file system objects according to at least one of the hierarchical security classification and the independent security category for the accessed file system object.
6. The computer program product of claim 5 , the hierarchical security classification further comprising at least two security levels, each security level being authorized to access the security levels below it.
7. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein:
the mandatory integrity policy provides at least one of a hierarchical security classification and an independent security category for each file system object; and,
the enforcing further comprising preventing at least one of an unauthorized user and an unauthorized process from writing to the file system objects according to at least one of the hierarchical security classification and the independent security category for the accessed file system object.
8. The computer program product of claim 7 , the hierarchical security classification further comprising at least two security levels, each security level being authorized to access the security levels below it.
9. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the computer comprises at least one processor having a multi-domain architecture to physically isolate domains in the at least one processor, and the trusted operating system utilizes the domains isolated by the multi-domain architecture of the at least one processor to enforce process isolation.
10. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein at least the mandatory security policy and the mandatory integrity policy are enforced by a domain physically isolated from a domain providing operating system services or running untrusted processes.
11. Computer program product stored on tangible computer readable media, the computer program product, when executed by a computer, providing:
a trusted operating system, the trusted operating system causing the computer to enforce four separate policies in the computer whenever any process attempts to access a file system object accessible by the computer, the enforcing preventing at least one of an unauthorized user and an unauthorized process from accessing the file system object, the policies comprising:
a mandatory security policy, wherein the mandatory security policy provides at least one of a hierarchical security classification and an independent security category for each file system object; and, the enforcing further comprising preventing at least one of an unauthorized user and an unauthorized process from reading from the file system objects according to at least one of the hierarchical security classification and the independent security category for the accessed file system object;
a mandatory integrity policy, wherein the mandatory integrity policy provides at least one of a hierarchical security classification and an independent security category for each file system object; and, the enforcing further comprising preventing at least one of an unauthorized user and an unauthorized process from writing to the file system objects according to at least one of the hierarchical security classification and the independent security category for the accessed file system object;
a discretionary access control policy; and,
a subtype policy.
12. The computer program product of claim 11 , the hierarchical security classification further comprising at least two security levels, each security level being authorized to access the security levels below it.
13. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein:
the discretionary access policy provides discretionary access information for a file system object, the discretionary access information comprising read permissions, write permissions, and execute permissions; and,
the enforcing further comprising preventing at least one of an unauthorized user and an unauthorized process from accessing the file system object according to the discretionary access information.
14. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein:
the subtype policy further comprising providing subtype information for a file system object; and,
the enforcing further comprising preventing at least one of an unauthorized user and an unauthorized process from accessing the file system object according to the subtype information.
15. The computer program product of claim 11 , the trusted operating system further comprising coven channel protection, the covert channel protection preventing at least one of unintended signaling channels and illicit information flows.
16. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the computer comprises at least one processor having a multi-domain architecture to physically isolate domains in the at least one processor, and the trusted operating system utilizes the domains isolated by the multi-domain architecture of the at least one processor to enforce process isolation.
17. The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein at least the mandatory security policy and the mandatory integrity policy are enforced by a domain physically isolated from a domain providing operating system services or running untrusted processes.