Solaris Trusted Extensions is a set of security extensions incorporated in the

Solaris 10 Solaris is a proprietary software, proprietary Unix operating system originally developed by Sun Microsystems. After the Acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle Corporation, Sun acquisition by Oracle in 2010, it was renamed Oracle Solaris. So ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, the ...

, featuring a

mandatory access control In computer security, mandatory access control (MAC) refers to a type of access control by which the operating system or database constrains the ability of a ''subject'' or ''initiator'' to access or generally perform some sort of operation on a ...

model. It succeeds

Trusted Solaris Trusted Solaris is a discontinued security-evaluated operating system based on Solaris (operating system), Solaris by Sun Microsystems, featuring a mandatory access control model. Features * Accounting * Role-Based Access Control * Auditing * Devic ...

, a family of security-evaluated operating systems based on earlier versions of

Solaris Solaris may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature, television and film * ''Solaris'' (novel), a 1961 science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem ** ''Solaris'' (1968 film), directed by Boris Nirenburg ** ''Solaris'' (1972 film), directed by ...

. Solaris 10 5/09 is

Common Criteria The Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation (referred to as Common Criteria or CC) is an international standard (ISO/IEC 15408) for computer security certification. It is currently in version 3.1 revision 5. Common Criteria ...

certified at

Evaluation Assurance Level The Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL1 through EAL7) of an IT product or system is a numerical grade assigned following the completion of a Common Criteria security evaluation, an international standard in effect since 1999. The increasing assurance ...

EAL4+ against the CAPP, RBACPP, and LSPP protection profiles.

Overview

Certain Trusted Solaris features, such as fine-grained privileges, are now part of the standard Solaris 10 release. Beginning with Solaris 10 11/06, Solaris now includes a component called Solaris Trusted Extensions which gives it the additional features necessary to position it as the successor to Trusted Solaris. Inclusion of these features in the mainstream Solaris release marks a significant change from Trusted Solaris, as it is no longer necessary to use a different Solaris release with a modified kernel for labeled security environments. Solaris Trusted Extensions is an

OpenSolaris OpenSolaris () is a discontinued open-source computer operating system based on Solaris and created by Sun Microsystems. It was also, perhaps confusingly, the name of a project initiated by Sun to build a developer and user community around th ...

project. Trusted Extensions additions and enhancements include: *Accounting *

Role-Based Access Control In computer systems security, role-based access control (RBAC) or role-based security is an approach to restricting system access to authorized users. It is an approach to implement mandatory access control (MAC) or discretionary access control ( ...

*Auditing *Device Allocation *Mandatory Access Control Labeling Solaris Trusted Extensions enforce a mandatory access control policy on all aspects of the operating system, including device access, file, networking, print and window management services. This is achieved by adding sensitivity labels to objects, thereby establishing explicit relationships between these objects. Only appropriate (and explicit) authorization allows applications and users read and/or write access to the objects. The component also provides labeled security features in a desktop environment. Apart from extending support for the

Common Desktop Environment The Common Desktop Environment (CDE) is a desktop environment for Unix and OpenVMS, based on the Motif widget toolkit. It was part of the UNIX 98 Workstation Product Standard, and was for a long time the Unix desktop associated with commercia ...

from the Trusted Solaris 8 release, it delivers the first labeled environment based on

GNOME A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...

. Solaris Trusted Extensions facilitate the access of data at multiple classification levels through a single desktop environment. Solaris Trusted Extensions also delivers labeled device access and labeled network communication (through the CIPSO standard). CIPSO is used to pass security information within and between labeled zones. Solaris Trusted Extensions complies with the

Federal Information Processing Standard The Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) of the United States are a set of publicly announced standards that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed for use in computer systems of non-military, American ...

(FIPS).

Trusted Solaris history

*1999 Trusted Solaris 7 *1996 Trusted Solaris 2.5.1 - ITSEC Certified for E3 / F-B1 *1995 Trusted Solaris 1.2 - ITSEC Certified for E3 / F-B1 *1992 SunOS Compartmented Mode Workstation 1.0 - ITSEC Certified for E3 / F-B1 *1990 SunOS Multilevel Security 1.0 - TCSEC Conformance (1985 Orange Book)

References

External links

Solaris Trusted Extensions
Official Website
OpenSolaris: Solaris Trusted Extensions project

Solaris Trusted Extensions press release
* {{operating-system-stub Operating system security Sun Microsystems software Proprietary operating systems