Our Featured Presentation at the ALE Central meeting
for Thursday, Oct. 21, 2010 at 7:30pm will be
Practical Server Security Management with SELinux
as presented by rabid Linux fanboy and security guru,
James Kinney
Synopsis:
— Running a Linux server with SELinux in enforcing targeted
mode is quite daunting for many, if not most sysadmins.
SELinux really needs to be a part of the toolkit used to
address security issues, but a toolkit that admins will use
and not just turn off by default. Over the course of a 1+
hour seminar, we will demonstrate various tools, both gui
and command line, and consider the analysis process for
resolving SELinux “Access Denied” problems on servers
running in “Enforcing Targeted” mode. If time permits, a
brief look at the concepts of higher security methods like
MCS and MLS will also be covered.
(Full Frontal) Bio:
— James (Jim) Kinney became an over-zealous GNU Linux
fanboy the first time he saw a discarded Next Cube running
Slackware in 1992. Several thousand installs later his
enthusiasm has escalated to “rabidly over-zealous Linux
fanboy advocating for the total world domination process
to speed up!” He is actively involved in helping this process
by promoting that “fdisk solves all windows problems
universally” and that “apple is one byte shy of a whole fruit”.
— In the 18 years since his introduction to Linux goodness,
James has turned an obsession into a living. First at Emory
University where he converted a Mac lab to Linux (and
ultimately used the same lab machines for a proto-type
Beowulf cluster in nice +5 mode so the students wouldn’t
notice) and helped co-found LUGE (Linux Users Group of
Emory). Next followed a 10+ year stint as a Linux
consultant (note to self: windows consultants make money
because things break all the time; Linux consultants only
make money setting things up so they never hear from
the client again until the next time they want a new
machine) with a few notable projects like making Linux
systems run thin clients in schools despite the technical
obstacles and political chaffing, a stint at “We’re not evil,
We just archive EVERYTHING FOREVER” Google, an
appearance at a travel booking company, and a ride with
“we wanna be just like Comcast” Cox Communications,
which all led Jim to realize that he really likes craft and
Belgian beer and Linux security systems (and Linux
fanboy activities like trash-talking other OS wannabes
from Redmond and Cupertino).
— Currently at GTRI, Jim works with some really bright
people who are actively involved in extending SELinux
policy to protect all aspects of critical path communications.
============================
We will be meeting in our usual Gambrel Hall room 1C venue.
Meeting time frame is 7:30pm to ~9:30pm
Directions to Emory Law School can be found
HERE (or via the side bar link).