From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932806AbZACURy (ORCPT ); Sat, 3 Jan 2009 15:17:54 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1759361AbZACURn (ORCPT ); Sat, 3 Jan 2009 15:17:43 -0500 Received: from mail01a.mail.t-online.hu ([84.2.40.6]:53471 "EHLO mail01a.mail.t-online.hu" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1759042AbZACURm (ORCPT ); Sat, 3 Jan 2009 15:17:42 -0500 X-Greylist: delayed 677 seconds by postgrey-1.27 at vger.kernel.org; Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:17:41 EST Subject: Grsecurity is about to be discontinued, unless... From: Gabor MICSKO To: torvalds@linux-foundation.org, akpm@linux-foundation.org Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Type: text/plain Date: Sat, 03 Jan 2009 21:06:16 +0100 Message-Id: <1231013176.6497.20.camel@localhost.localdomain> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.24.2 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-DCC-mail.t-online.hu-Metrics: mail01a.mail.t-online.hu 32720; Body=3 Fuz1=3 Fuz2=3 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Hi, As most of you probably know, a GPL licensed security solution called grsecurity [1] has been available for the Linux kernel since a while. It has a rather impressive list of features [2]. The lead developer has been maintaining patches for the 2.4 and the 2.6 branch for many years. According to their developers, the patch includes various advanced security aspects which inspired several further projects [3]. A week ago, the latest - and probably the last - release was published. The main developer lost its sole sponsor due to the financial crisis, so the future of the project is in danger. As a result, the future development of PaX [4], one of the definitive components of grsecurity is also in deep trouble [5]. In the past, there have been several requests toward the Linux developers to include grsecurity and PaX in the mainline kernel [6][7][8], but in vain. The common opinion of the developers of grsecurity, PaX and their users is that acceptance of the code into the kernel would be the best solution for saving the project, beside finding another long-term sponsor. Before the project would finally die, I would like to draw your attention to the question of integration into the kernel again. In short, I would like to know what is your answer to this request. And in the case if you see no chance for the integration, I would like to know what is the reason behind this decision. [1] http://www.grsecurity.net [2] http://www.grsecurity.net/features.php [3] http://grsecurity.net/~spender/grsecurity_pax-influence.png [4] http://pax.grsecurity.net/ [5] http://www.grsecurity.net/news.php#grsec2112 [6] http://lkml.org/lkml/2003/4/20/13 [7] http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/net/0602.0/0020.html [8] http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/1/13/184 Thanks and best regards, -- Gabor MICSKO - http://hup.hu