Geek Trivia #7

ziggy on 2003-03-20T23:16:13

Whammo mentioned that he likes the little trivia questions that appear in some useperl journals. It's been about a month since I posted my last Geek Trivia question, so here's a fresh one. It comes from a conversation in the hallway at this week's egovos conference.

Question 1 (10pts):

In the context of the (current) Linux Kernel, what does the term «lsm» mean?

Question 2 (10pts):

What capability does «lsm» provide?

Question 3 (5pts):

Provide an example of an «lsm».

Good luck! No searching!

 

Update: +25 to prakash!

LSM could either be the Linux Software Map, an attempt to catalog software available for Linux, or it could be the Linux Security Module architecture, added to the 2.5 kernel series. I was going for the security module, because that is the only LSM that has any meaning in the context of the kernel.

LSMs provide a modular architecture to adding security features to the kernel, instead of statically pre-building them into the kernel at compile time. The most common example of an LSM (at least from what I hear) are the NSA's SELinux extensions for manditory access controls and other such goodness.

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lsm

prakash on 2003-03-20T23:50:15

lsm == Linux Security Modules framework.

lsm provides security capabilities like ACLs, auditing etc.

AFAIK,
/prakash

Re:lsm

ziggy on 2003-03-21T00:04:34

That's good for questions 1 & 2. Can you name an LSM for the remaining 5 points? :-)

Re:lsm

prakash on 2003-03-21T14:37:38

NSA Security Enhanced Linux support and Openwall?

I didn't search on the net but I did peak into the kernel sources on my box. Did I violate the rule of "no searching"?

/prakash

Re:lsm

ziggy on 2003-03-21T14:56:05

NSA Security Enhanced Linux support and Openwall?

Cool. +5

I didn't search on the net but I did peak into the kernel sources on my box. Did I violate the rule of "no searching"?

Nope. Grovelling through the kernel sources is OK. Hitting Google (or Amazon, or IMDB, or...) just isn't fair to other people who want to test their wits.

ambiguity

belg4mit on 2003-03-21T01:11:17

LSM is also Linux Software Map. foo.lsm is for siftware package foo similar to the file_id.diz one used to find enclosed in shareware packages. ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/ has many LSM.

Re:ambiguity

ziggy on 2003-03-21T02:46:51

Yes, but the Linux Software Map isn't about the kernel. It's about organizing a vast sea of userland packages. That's why I specifically asked the question in the context of the kernel. :-)

Re:ambiguity

belg4mit on 2003-03-21T02:52:57

Oops, I didn't see the bit about the kernel.