Russell Coker is an Australian computer programmer based in Melbourne. He has been actively involved in the

free and open-source software Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term encompassing free ...

community and is a long time

Debian Debian () is a free and open-source software, free and open source Linux distribution, developed by the Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock in August 1993. Debian is one of the oldest operating systems based on the Linux kerne ...

developer. He has also made contributions to Security-Enhanced Linux (

SELinux Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) is a Linux kernel security module that provides a mechanism for supporting access control security policies, including mandatory access controls (MAC). SELinux is a set of kernel modifications and user-space too ...

) in the forms of creating reference policy and integrating SELinux to the wider free software ecosystem. In 2003, Coker was awarded a grant from the James and Charlotte Griffin Foundation for his work on SELinux. He also created the free and open source file system

benchmarking Benchmarking is the practice of comparing business processes and performance metrics to industry bests and best practices from other companies. Dimensions typically measured are Project management triangle, quality, time and cost. Benchmarking is ...

software Bonnie++.

Early life

Coker developed a interest in computer programming at a young age, initially with a Talking Electronics

TEC-1 The TEC-1 is a single-board kit computer first produced by the Australian hobbyist electronics magazine Talking Electronics in the early 1980s. The design by John Hardy and Ken Stone was based on the Zilog Z80 CPU, had 2kilobyte, K of random ac ...

computer kit, which was widely available in Australia in the 1980s. He was interested in

Unix Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

in high school but due to the curriculum design of his computer class, he didn't have access to it until university. He obtained his Computer Science and Software Engineering degree at

Swinburne University The Swinburne University of Technology (or simply Swinburne) is a public research university in Melbourne, Australia. It is the modern descendant of the Eastern Suburbs Technical College established in 1908, renamed Swinburne Technical College ...

Outspokenness

Coker has given talks and lectures on the topic of Linux security for many free and open-source software conferences including SELinux Symposium,

FOSDEM Free and Open source Software Developers' European Meeting (FOSDEM) is an annual software engineering conference. It is non-commercial and volunteer-organized with a focus on free and open-source software. Initiated in 2000, it is usually held d ...

2003,

Debconf is a software utility for performing system-wide configuration tasks on Unix-like operating systems. It is developed for the Debian Linux distribution, and is closely integrated with Debian's package management system, dpkg. When packages are ...

and LCA. He is also a vocal member in the

mailing list A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. Mailing lists are often rented or sold. If rented, the renter agrees to use the mailing list only at contra ...

of the

Linux Users of Victoria Linux Users of Victoria ("LUV") is a Linux User Group ("LUG") based in the state of Victoria, Australia. It was incorporated in 1993 as a not for profit group, making it one of the largest and oldest Linux User Groups in Australia. It now has cl ...

, a Linux User Group ("LUG") based in

Victoria, Australia Victoria, commonly abbreviated as Vic, is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state (after Tasmania), with a land area of ; the second-most-populated state (after New South Wales), with a population of over 7 million; ...

Work on SELinux

SELinux Play Machine

Russell Coker used to host a SELinux-enabled server with open root access, allowing anyone on the internet to login as 'root' (administrator account) to demonstrate SELinux can create a secure system without using the Unix permissions model. The server was powered by a Compaq P3-800 system running Debian/Etch in a

Xen Xen (pronounced ) is a free and open-source type-1 hypervisor, providing services that allow multiple computer operating systems to execute on the same computer hardware concurrently. It was originally developed by the University of Cambridge C ...

DomU and provided

SSH The Secure Shell Protocol (SSH Protocol) is a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network. Its most notable applications are remote login and command-line execution. SSH was designed for Un ...

access via a

Tor hidden service Tor is a free overlay network for enabling anonymous communication. It is built on free and open-source software run by over seven thousand volunteer-operated relays worldwide, as well as by millions of users who route their Internet traffic ...

. As of 2023, the play machine is no longer accessible.

Debian integration

As a Debian Developer, Coker helped create and maintain Debian packages for many SELinux libraries and tools for better Debian integration. He also contributed to Debian's SELinux

wiki A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or l ...

pages.

SELinux on iPaQ and User-mode Linux

In an effort to enhance the security of

embedded system An embedded system is a specialized computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is e ...

s, Russell Coker first ported SELinux to

User-mode Linux User-mode Linux (UML) is a virtualization system for the Linux operating system based on an architectural port of the Linux kernel to its own system call interface, which enables multiple virtual Linux kernel-based operating systems (known as gu ...

to aid development and then modified SELinux to integrate it with iPaQs running

Familiar Linux Familiar Linux is a discontinued Linux distribution for iPAQ devices and other personal digital assistants (PDAs), intended as a replacement for Windows CE. It can use OPIE or GPE Palmtop Environment as the graphical user interface. Technical d ...

. In his 2003 paper
Porting NSA SE Linux to Hand Held devices
, he concludes that "Security Enhanced Linux on a hand-held device can consume less than 1.3M of RAM and less than 400K of disk space (or less than 200K if you really squeeze things)" and believes "the benefits of reducing repair and maintenance problems with hand-held devices that are deployed in the field through better security outweigh the disadvantage of increased memory use for many applications".

Conference Papers

* SAGE 2006
Poly-Instantiated Directories in both SE Linux and non-SE Linux environments"
* Linux World 2006 SE Linux tutorials * AusCERT 2006 SE Linux tutorials * AUUG 200

* OLS 200
"porting SE Linux to hand-held devices"
* Linux Kongress 200
"Partitioning a Server with NSA SE Linux"
* OLS 200
"SE Debian: how to make NSA SE Linux work in a distribution"

References

External links

Russell Coker's Debian QA page

Russell Coker's Documents

Russell Coker's Blog
Australian computer programmers Debian people Open source people Swinburne University of Technology alumni {{DEFAULTSORT:Coker, Russell Year of birth missing (living people) Living people