Jump to content

Security-focused operating system

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Logan2611 (talk | contribs) at 07:48, 19 October 2023 (Alpine Linux is no longer a Gentoo based distro. It is now standalone.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.


This is a list of operating systems specifically focused on security. Operating systems for general-purpose usage may be secure without having a specific focus on security.[1]

Similar concepts include security-evaluated operating systems that have achieved certification from an auditing organization, and trusted operating systems that provide sufficient support for multilevel security and evidence of correctness to meet a particular set of requirements.

Linux

Android-based

Arch-based

  • BlackArch is a security-focused OS that provide penetration testing mitigation, and privacy-enhancement tools

Debian-based

  • Kali Linux, Parrot OS Security Edition, BackBox, and Security Onion are all Debian-based security-focused OSes that provide penetration testing mitigation, and privacy-enhancement tools
  • Tails is a security-focused Linux distribution aimed at preserving privacy and anonymity. It is meant to be run as Live-CD or from a USB Drive and to not write any kind of data to a drive, unless specified or persistence is set. That way, it lives in RAM and everything is purged from the system whenever it is powered off. Tails is designed to do an emergency shutdown and erase its data from RAM if the medium where it resides is expelled.[2]
  • Whonix[3][4] is an anonymous general purpose operating system based on VirtualBox, Debian Linux and Tor. By Whonix design, IP and DNS leaks are impossible. Not even malware as superuser can find out the user's real IP address/location. This is because Whonix consists of two (virtual) machines. One machine solely runs Tor and acts as a gateway, called Whonix-Gateway. The other machine, called Whonix-Workstation, is on a completely isolated network. It is also possible to use multiple Whonix Workstations simultaneously through one gateway, that will provide stream isolation (though is not necessarily endorsed).[5] All the connections are forced through Tor with the Whonix Gateway Virtual Machine, therefore IP and DNS leaks are impossible.[6]

Gentoo-based

Xen-based

  • Qubes OS is a desktop operating system based around the Xen hypervisor that allows grouping programs into a number of isolated sandboxes (virtual machines) to provide security. Windows for programs running within these sandboxes ("security domains") can be color coded for easy recognition. The security domains are configurable, they can be transient (changes to the file system will not be preserved), and their network connection can be routed through special virtual machines (for example one that only provides Tor networking). The operating system provides secure mechanisms for copy and paste and for copying files between the security domains[11]

Other Linux distributions

  • Alpine Linux is an actively maintained lightweight musl and BusyBox-based distribution. It uses PaX and grsecurity patches in the default kernel and compiles all packages with stack-smashing protection.
  • Fedora Silverblue is an immutable desktop operating system. Every Silverblue installation is identical to every other installation of the same version, and it never changes as it is used. The immutable design is intended to make the operating system more stable, less prone to bugs, easier to test and develop, and create a platform for containerized applications as well as container-based software development. Applications and containers are kept separate from the host system. OS updates are fast and there is no installation stage. With Silverblue, it is also possible to roll back to the previous version of the operating system, if something goes wrong.[12]

BSD

  • OpenBSD is an open source BSD operating system that is known to be concerned heavily with security. The project has completed rigorous manual reviews of the code and addressed issues most systems have not. OpenBSD also supplies an executable space protection scheme known as W^X (memory is writable xor executable), as well as a ProPolice compiled executable base. OpenBSD became the first mainstream operating system to support partial ASLR and to activate it by default; ASLR support was completed in 2008 when it added support for position-independent executable (PIE) binaries.[13]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Mandatory Security - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics". www.sciencedirect.com. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
  2. ^ Vervloesem, Koen (27 April 2011). "The Amnesic Incognito Live System: A live CD for anonymity [LWN.net]". lwn.net. Archived from the original on 21 August 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  3. ^ "Whonix/Whonix". GitHub. Archived from the original on 25 November 2016. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  4. ^ "Whonix: An OS for the era of Anonymous and Wikileaks". computerworld.com.au. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  5. ^ "Multiple Whonix-Workstation ™". www.whonix.org. Archived from the original on 1 October 2019. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  6. ^ "Whonix: An Operating System Where IP & DNS Leaks Are Impossible".
  7. ^ Pentoo (Gentoo) Based Linux Review, Features and Screenshot Tour, TecMint.
  8. ^ KITE Introduces a New Secured FOSS Based Operating System
  9. ^ A Look at Pentoo Linux and Its Security Analysis Tools, eWeek
  10. ^ 12 Best Operating Systems For Ethical Hacking And Penetration Testing | 2018 Edition
  11. ^ Porup, J.M. (14 February 2022). "Qubes OS: A reasonably secure operating system". Qubes OS. Archived from the original on 14 February 2022.
  12. ^ "Fedora Silverblue User Guide :: Fedora Docs". docs.fedoraproject.org. Archived from the original on 11 October 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
  13. ^ "Pledge() - A New Mitigation Mechanism". Retrieved 8 October 2018.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Security-focused_operating_system&oldid=1180856543"