Sun and NSA team up for new version of OpenSolaris

By Isabelle Chaize

Sun Microsystem’s OpenSolaris operating system is to be enhanced by a deal between Sun and the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).

The merge will integrate Flask (Flux Advanced Security Kernel), the NSA’s security architecture for operating systems, into OpenSolaris in a move which will create mandatory access controls in OpenSolaris.

This will enable admins of the operating system to control and place limits on which actions can be performed on their accounts.

According to Bill Vass, president and chief operating officer at Sun Microsystems Federal, the move will strenthen the security of OpenSolaris, benefiting its developers.

He said, ‘This represents another milestone in bringing flexible MAC to mainstream operating systems and will broaden the set of platforms that support this technology’.

‘We believe this will augment Solaris’ already strong adoption and security profile. We look forward to working closely with the NSA and the Flask community of developers to extend this advanced security technology into OpenSolaris.’

Flask is also playing a part in the further development of Security-Enhanced Linux.

Sun president and chief executive Jonathan Schwartz described the benefits of incorporating Flask into OpenSolaris: ‘The NSA’s expertise and Sun’s 18 years’ experience in delivering mandatory access control solutions, along with its commitment to the open standards community, provides the basis for investigating the use of Flask with OpenSolaris.’

‘This is an opportunity to improve the security of an already robust OpenSolaris environment in a manner that may benefit government and commercial customers alike’.