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Red Star OS () is a
North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and ...
n
Linux distribution A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and, often, a package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading ...
, with development first starting in 1998 at the Korea Computer Center (KCC). Prior to its release, computers in North Korea typically used
Red Hat Linux Red Hat Linux was a widely used commercial open-source Linux distribution created by Red Hat until its discontinuation in 2004. Early releases of Red Hat Linux were called Red Hat Commercial Linux. Red Hat published the first non-beta releas ...
and later switched to a modified
Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was release to manufacturing, released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Wind ...
with North Korean language packs installed. Version 3.0 was released in the summer of 2013, but , version 1.0 continues to be more widely used. It is offered only in a
Korean language Korean (South Korean: , ''hangugeo''; North Korean: , ''chosŏnmal'') is the native language for about 80 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the official and national language of both North Korea and South Korea (geographical ...
edition, localized with North Korean terminology and spelling.


Specifications

Red Star OS features a modified
Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and ...
browser called ''Naenara'' ("My country" in Korean), which is used for browsing the Naenara web portal on North Korea's
national intranet A national intranet is an Internet protocol-based walled garden network maintained by a nation state as a national substitute for the global Internet, with the aim of controlling and monitoring the communications of its inhabitants, as well as ...
known as Kwangmyong. Naenara comes with two search engines. Other software includes a
text editor A text editor is a type of computer program that edits plain text. Such programs are sometimes known as "notepad" software (e.g. Windows Notepad). Text editors are provided with operating systems and software development packages, and can be us ...
, an
office suite Productivity software (also called personal productivity software or office productivity software) is application software used for producing information (such as documents, presentations, worksheets, databases, charts, graphs, digital paintin ...
, an
e-mail client An email client, email reader or, more formally, message user agent (MUA) or mail user agent is a computer program used to access and manage a user's email. A web application which provides message management, composition, and reception functi ...
, audio and video players, a file sharing program, and
video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedbac ...
. Version 3, like its predecessors, utilizes
Wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts ...
, a compatibility layer that allows
Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for se ...
programs to be run under Linux. The operating system utilizes customized versions of
KDE Software Compilation The KDE Software Compilation (KDE SC) was an umbrella term for the desktop environment plus a range of included applications produced by KDE. From its 1.0 release in July 1998 until the release of version 4.4 in February 2010, the Software Compi ...
. Earlier versions had
KDE 3 K Desktop Environment 3 is the third series of releases of the K Desktop Environment (after that called ''KDE Software Compilation''). There are six major releases in this series. After the release of KDE 4, version 3.5 was forked into the Trinit ...
-based desktops. Version 3.0 closely resembles
Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor ...
's
macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...
, whereas previous versions more closely resembled
Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was release to manufacturing, released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Wind ...
; current North Korean leader
Kim Jong-un Kim Jong-un (; , ; born 8 January 1982) is a North Korean politician who has been Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011 and the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is a son of Kim Jong-il, who was North Korea's s ...
was seen with an
iMac iMac is a family of all-in-one Mac desktop computers designed and built by Apple Inc. It has been the primary part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since its debut in August 1998, and has evolved through seven distinct forms. In its ...
on his desk in a 2013 photo, indicating a possible connection to the redesign.


Media attention

The Japan-based
North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and ...
-affiliated newspaper ''
Choson Sinbo The ''Choson Sinbo'' (''Chosun Shinbo''), also known by the name of its English edition ''The People's Korea'', is a newspaper based in Japan, published in both Korean and Japanese. The name literally means ' Chosun (Korea) Newspaper'. It is p ...
'' interviewed two Red Star OS programmers in June 2006. English-language technology blogs, including
Engadget ''Engadget'' ( ) is a multilingual technology blog network with daily coverage of gadgets and consumer electronics. ''Engadget'' manages ten blogs four of which are written in English and six have international versions with independent editor ...
and
OSnews OSNews is a computing online newspaper. It originally focused on operating systems and their related technologies that launched in 1997, but is now aggregating consumer electronics news. The content is managed by a group of editors and the owner. ...
, as well as South Korean
wire services A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. A news agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newsw ...
such as
Yonhap Yonhap News Agency is a major South Korean news agency. It is based in Seoul, South Korea. Yonhap provides news articles, pictures and other information to newspapers, TV networks and other media in South Korea. History Yonhap (, , translit. ...
, went on to repost the content. In late 2013, Will Scott, who was visiting the
Pyongyang University of Science and Technology Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) is North Korea's first privately funded university. It is founded, operated, and partly funded by associations and people outside the country. PUST was jointly planned and constructed by for ...
, purchased a copy of version 3 from a KCC retailer in southern Pyongyang, and uploaded screenshots to the internet. In 2015, two German researchers speaking at the
Chaos Communication Congress The Chaos Communication Congress is an annual conference organized by the Chaos Computer Club. The congress features a variety of lectures and workshops on technical and political issues related to security, cryptography, privacy and onl ...
described the internal operation of the OS. The North Korean government wants to track the underground market of
USB flash drive A USB flash drive (also called a thumb drive) is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. It is typically removable, rewritable and much smaller than an optical disc. Most weigh less than . Since first ...
s used to exchange foreign films, music and writing, so the system
watermarks A watermark is an identifying image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations ...
all files on portable media attached to computers.


History


Version 1.0

The first version appeared in 2008. It is very reminiscent of the Windows XP operating system. It featured the " Naenara" web browser, based on Mozilla Firefox, and an Office suite based on Open Office, called "Uri 2.0".
Wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts ...
is also included. So far, no copies have been leaked online. The screenshots of the operating system were officially published by KCNA and discovered by South Korean news sites.


Version 2.0

The development of version 2.0 began in March 2008, and was completed on 3 June 2009. Like its predecessor, its appearance resembles Windows XP, and was priced at 2000
North Korean won The Korean People's won, sometimes known as the North Korean won (Symbol: ₩; Code: KPW; Korean: ) or Democratic People's Republic of Korea won (Korean: ), is the official currency of North Korea. It is subdivided into 100 ''chon''. The curre ...
(approx. US$15). The "Naenara" internet browser is also included in this version. The browser was released on 6 August 2009, as part of the operating system, and was priced at 4000 North Korean won (approx. US$28). The operating system uses a special keyboard layout that differs greatly from the South Korean standard layout.


Version 3.0

Version 3.0 was introduced on 15 April 2012, and its appearance resembles
macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...
operating systems of various versions. The new version supports both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. The operating system comes pre-installed with a number of applications that monitor its users. If a user tries to disable security functions, an error message will appear on the computer, or the operating system will crash and reboot. In addition, a watermarking tool integrated into the system marks all media content with the hard drive's serial number, allowing the North Korean authorities to trace the spread of files. The system also has hidden "anti-virus" software that is capable of removing censored files that are remotely stored by the North Korean secret service. There is a user group called " administrator" in the operating system. Users do not have root access by default, but are able to elevate their privileges to root by running a built-in utility called "rootsetting". However, provisions are made in kernel modules to deny even root users access to certain files, and extensive system integrity checks are done at boot time to ensure these files have not been modified. Red Star OS 3 comes with a customized version of OpenOffice called Sogwang Office. The operating system was leaked by Zammis Clark ("SlipStream").


Version 4.0

Very little information is available on version 4.0. As of late 2017 it is known that a Red Star 4.0 exists and is being field tested. According to '' The Pyongyang Times'', an official version of Red Star OS 4.0 has been developed as of January 2019, with full network support as well as system and service management tools. In June and July 2020,
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
's NKEconomy (NK경제) obtained Red Star 4.0 and published articles about it. It appears to be based on a
Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whic ...
operating system.


Vulnerabilities

In 2016, the
computer security Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, th ...
company Hacker House found a security vulnerability in the integrated web browser Naenara. This vulnerability makes it possible to execute commands on the computer if the user clicks on a crafted link.


References


External links

*
Download"
* *
redstar-tools
A tool used for analyzing the system. {{Portal bar, Free and open-source software, Linux Information technology in North Korea KDE Korean-language computing Linux distributions State-sponsored Linux distributions