Security and the $100 Laptop

gondaba writes "The One Laptop Per Child project is actively recruiting hackers to help crack the security model of the $100 laptop to avoid the obvious risks associated with what will effectively be the largest computing monoculture in history. From the article: 'The key design goal, Krstic explained, is to avoid irreversible damage to the machines. The laptops will force applications to run in a "walled garden" that isolates files from certain sensitive locations like the kernel. "If we discover vulnerabilities, the security model must hold up enough that even a machine that is unpatched won't be easily exploitable. This gives us a bit of diversity to avoid the monoculture trap," he added.'"

Why hack a machine that will have no data on it?

Well, other than to build a zombie network I guess- but I can't imagine anybody being interested in some Libyan child's schoolwork.

Pull my cracker

Oh come on, what perverted cracker wouldn't enjoy flashing "All your base are belong to us" across every child's laptop in Africa?

Re:Pull my cracker

If I know kids, there revenge on said hacker will be scary.

Re:Why hack a machine that will have no data on it

other Libyan children.

Re:Why hack a machine that will have no data on it

Plenty of people do malicious things for fun. There doesn't always have to be a pecuniary motive.

Re:Why hack a machine that will have no data on it

You think the majority of worms and viruses that crack Microsoft Windows systems today are after the data contained in said system? You giv the answer yourself, its a readymade zombie network saleable to the highest bidder.

No data, but quite a processing network

That's true. The fact that the machines don't have appreciably large hard drives, heavy processing power, and won't have constant high-bandwith internet connections might do a lot for them.

On the other hand, there are going to be a *lot* of these machines. So I suppose they might make a tempting target "just because" or simply for bulk processing.

Even bigger story in there...

If they pull off 100 million laptops, Microsoft can no longer claim dominance in the desktop...

Good Lord! The chairs are a'gonna fly in Redmond once this gets out!

(props for the security testing, though :) )

/P

Could actually be a problem

Not for MS but for MS's competitors. Can't really claim MS is a monopoly anymore if there's 100 million systems running a non-MS OS. That means that they are free to do as they please, for the most part, when it comes to locking people out of their OS. Most anti-competitiveness statues only affect monopolies. Companies that face competition are generally allowed to be as anti-competitive as they like.

Re:

That depends on how you define competitors.

If you mean competitors among OSes (ie Apple and Red Hat), then no, it's not.

But their competitors in other fields - antivirus (McAffee, Symantec, Norton), accounting (Quicken), PDF and presentation tools (Adobe)

Re:

(props for the security testing, though :) )

Sure, but they're going about it all wrong. Everyone knows that the way you ensure secure computers is to make a proprietary OS and don't tell anyone where your buffer overflows are.

Biggest Monoculture

The many millions of SymbianOS [wikipedia.org] mobile "phones" is the largest computing monoculture in the world. Much more essential for the world's daily operation than these cool kids' PCs, and tied directly to the wallets, by the minute, of most people with any money.

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You missed the point that it is identical software AND hardware.

Sure, there are more installs of Windows XP, but they aren't all running on the exact same hardware. Same goes for SymbianOS.

Also, these laptop don't assume that someone is attached to a

Hack the proprietary binary only WiFi firmware!

Theo start your hex-editor and show them that it is no good idea to include
closed components.

virtualize the applications

Run each application in it's own virtual machine. Xen has a low enough overhead and is clean code. Browser compromised - reload from know good source.

Re:virtualize the applications

How are virtual machines going to help here? What protection do virtual machines grant that the operating itself doesn't grant? What undesireable restrictions do virtual machines impose? If you work around these restrictions, will the system be more or less secure than without virtual machines? If you don't work around these restrictions, will the system be usable?

As far as I'm concerned, running applications should already be separated from one another. This leaves interaction through the file system and IPC (inter-process communication).

Virtual machines take away the interaction through the filesystem, as well as local IPC. The latter doesn't actually necessarily make the system more secure, as it makes it more difficult to tell if IPC is safe (on the virtual network) or open to attacks (on the real network). At any rate, IPC will be less efficient, because you lose shared memory IPC.

By taking away common filesystem access and complicating IPC, applications become less usable. How do you get the file Alice sent you by email to your word processor? How do you copy-paste from one application to another? How do you do process management, when the process management tools are made for a single machine, but you have everything runnig under virtual machines?

Once you work around these restrictions, what will you be left with? Are you going to re-introduce common filesystem access and create a drag-and-drop interface that works accross virtual machines? When you've done so, won't you have a system that has pretty much the same capabilities as one that isn't based on loads of virtual machines, except that your system is much more complex? Won't that complexity introduce new bugs and vulnerabilities? Will the system not be too slow to be usable?

Re:

How are virtual machines going to help here? What protection do virtual machines grant that the operating itself doesn't grant?

Most operating systems, including most Linux systems do not have strict access controls on an application level. Using a VM is

Coming up next...

After they solve this dimension of the security issue, they can deal with a slightly more important one - securing the laptops against theft.

DEAREST SIR MY NAME IS BARRISTER MUMBAGWE SMYTHE AND I WRITE TO YOU IN GRAVE NEED FOR ASSIST. RECENTLY MY GOVERNMENT UNCLE DIED AND LEFT ME MANY MILLION LAPTOP WHICH MUST BE EXITED FROM COUNTRY.

I predict more dead third world children! Oh yes. Still, it makes a nice change from diamonds/oil/etc....instead there shall be many a colourful laptop for sale on eBay, due to demand created by Linux fetishists.

If only they had used OS X - then there would be no desire for such hideous laptops by those OS fans. Sniffle.

Your overconfidence is your weakness

> "The machine, he said, will feature a completely secure BIOS solution that allows fully automatic upgrades without user intervention and fully protects against phishing and automated worm attacks."

Also, it whitens your teeth while you sleep, and autodials Alyson Hannigan whenever she's feeling lonely and horny. All for $100!

Recruiting Hackers

Taken in context I would presume that they're referring to hackers in the negative sense. This is not a group that's known for being champions of safe computing.

So let's see:
1) l33t h4xx04z finds a nifty security hole.
2) l33t h4xx04z determines that he could use this hole to create 100 million zombies.
3) Decision - a) report the hole so that it can be fixed OR b) start working on exploit to create 100 million marketable zombies
4) PROFIT.

Re:

Well, this guy [ateamshrine.co.uk] seems to have a pretty good track record, maybe they could hire him?

Re:

no.

Giving people tools so they can help themselves is the best thing you can do. This, like all comuters, is just a tool.
Making someone dependent on hand outs is not the solution.

Re:Step in the Wrong Direction?

I don't mean to be a Johnny-Come-Lately, but isn't there other ways to improve a civilization/country/etc without computers?

Sure there are. But just because there are other ways does not make this method any less beneficial.

Why is that when Linux is mentioned, it's like being touched by the Hand of God (or Allah for that matter) ?

Most things we can give or subsidize the cost of for developing nations have negative consequences. Giving them food, destroys the local market and kills their agricultural sector. Giving them GM crops that grow faster and better makes them dependent upon the companies who own the patent on that crop and who can later demand fees for its use. Giving them cheap Windows based PCs, may help in the short term, but it makes them dependent upon IP from an abusive foreign monopoly in the long term.

Linux is a win-win situation because by nature it ships with all the blueprints and tools needed with the only strings being used to stop it from being exploited in ways that hurt the end user. It gives them access to technology and information and provides a secure foundation for them to build upon without undercutting any local development. Rather, it encourages local development.

Imagine if instead of shipping food to African nations at below the market value, we shipped them a complete chain of tools and machinery needed to build from the ground up the entire industrial foundation for agricultural equipment and fertilizers. Basically, we gave them the whole setup of factories and education and patents we have. Then they would not be dependent upon us and could grow their own food the same way we do.

To do that would be prohibitively expensive for agriculture, but for software development, Linux is that complete chain, with no strings attached. That is why it is so well regarded by those interested in helping developing nations.

Re:

When the parts for laptops get cheap enough that someone could manufacture a $100 laptop, *then the market will be flooded with $100 laptops*. There are a dearth of hardware manufacturers out there already competing to make the cheapest laptop they can.

I

Re:

Yes, it is opensourced from Novell.

Here's a link to the Novell Forge: http://forge.novell.com/modules/xfmod/project/?app armor [novell.com]

SELinux is out there too, but quite a bit more difficult to configure, even as a distro. AppArmor can be added to any system you