Red Hat boosts Linux security

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. - Red Hat is prepping an upgrade of
Linux that lets system managers significantly tighten the security
of their networks, as well as more easily install and configure the
operating system.

Code-named Pinstripe and referred to in prerelease Red Hat
documentation as Linux 7.0, the new version supports features that
users in corporate environments have long sought. They include
several easy-to-use desktop interfaces and a hardened Linux kernel
that makes the operating system more stable. The upgrade is
scheduled to ship by year-end.
"Pinstripe offers better support for recent hardware, a more secure
base install, integration of many popular packages, and better
features for mass deployment," says Alan Shutko, software engineer
for In-Touch Management Systems, a paging software maker in
Melville, N.Y.

"This should make it easier to deploy Linux and fit it into a
company's architecture," he adds.

Three of the most important features of Red Hat Linux 7.0 are its
use of the latest unreleased Linux kernel, 2.4; inclusion of more
complete security features, such as a secure remote access program
and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL); and a new installation program that
is tailored to the Linux experience level of the user. Linus
Torvalds, the creator of Linux, expects the 2.4 kernel to be
available by the end of September.

"The 2.2 [Linux] kernel was a great kernel. However, it was lacking
in hardware and file system support," says Jesse Noller, an
enterprise engineer for a business software company in
Massachusetts, adding, "general TCP/IP problems plagued it in the
enterprise."

"Linux 2.4 [employed in Red Hat Linux 7.0] uses a new threading
model that lets people who need speed and stability tap into the
kernel and get a lightning-fast Linux server on an eight-processor
Intel box that can serve up a few million pages for a fraction of
the cost of Windows NT," Noller says.

Red Hat confirms that Linux 7.0 will also have symmetrical
multiprocessing support for up to eight server processors, although
the company declined to discuss the upgrade details in depth.

Noller says that enhancing Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
(LDAP) authentication functionality and adding SSL are also a boon
for corporate networks. With LDAP and SSL exploited, "people in an
enterprise environment can have multitudes of machines governed with
a singular policy [model]," Noller adds. "This is an excellent step
for Linux in the way of enterprise-grade security support."