Security-evaluated operating system

A security-evaluated operating system is an operating system that has achieved a certification from an external security auditing organization, such as a B2 or A1 CSC-STD-001-83 "Department of Defense Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria" or Common Criteria certification.

Note that meeting a given set of evaluation criteria does not make a computer operating system "secure". Certificates are not endorsements of the "goodness" of an IT product by any organization that recognizes or gives effect to the certificate. A certificate represents the successful completion of a validation that product met CC requirements for which it was evaluated/tested.

Note that certifications are given for a particular configuration of the system running on a certain set of hardware; the certificate is only valid for this specific configuration, and does not extend to the same software if any aspect of the installation is altered in any way. Often these scenarios are extremely limited compared to the normal environments in which computer operating systems are usually used.

Moreover, the field of operating systems which can apply to be evaluated is restricted to those with strong corporate backing, because of the costs that ensue. In general, you will find the most popular vendors listed here, while this does not mean that other solutions, such as OSS solutions, couldn't reach, or exceed this level of security under certain circumstances, without even having tried to pass this advocacy evaluation.

Trusted Solaris

Trusted Solaris is a security-focused version of the Solaris Unix operating system. Aimed primarily at the government computing sector, Trusted Solaris adds detailed auditing of all tasks, pluggable authentication, mandatory access control, additional physical authentication devices, and fine-grained access control. Versions of Trusted Solaris through version 8 are Common Criteria certified. See [http://wwws.sun.com/software/security/securitycert/trustedsolaris.html] and [http://wwws.sun.com/software/security/securitycert/images/TSol8_7-03CMS.jpg] Trusted Solaris Version 8 received the EAL4 certification level augmented by a number of protection profiles. See [http://csrc.nist.gov/cc/Documents/CC%20v2.1%20-%20HTML/PART3/PART36.HTM] for explanation of The Evaluation Assurance Levels.

BAE Systems' STOP

BAE Systems' STOP version 6.0.E received an EAL4+ in April 2004 and the 6.1.E version received an EAL5+ certification in March 2005. Previous versions of STOP have held a B3 certification under TCSEC. While STOP 6 is binary compatible with Linux, it is not derived from the Linux kernel. See [http://www.digitalnet.com/solutions/information_assurance/xts400_trusted_sys.htm] for an overview of the system.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 was evaluated at EAL2 in February 2004. [http://niap.nist.gov/cc-scheme/vpl/vpl_vendor.html]

Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 running on an IBM eServer was certified at CAPP/EAL4+ in February 2005. [http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/56451 News release at heise.de]

Microsoft Windows

All modern versions of Microsoft Windows have received EAL 4 Augmented ALC_FLR.3 certification:

* Windows 2000 Server, Advanced Server, and Professional, each with Service Pack 3 and Q326886 Hotfix operating on the x86 platform were certified as [http://niap.nist.gov/cc-scheme/st/ST_VID4002-VR.pdf CAPP/EAL 4 Augmented ALC_FLR.3] in October 2002. (This includes standard configurations as Domain Controller, Server in a Domain, Stand-alone Server, Workstation in a Domain, Stand-alone Workstation)

* Windows XP Professional and Embedded editions, with Service Pack 2, and Windows Server 2003 Standard and Enterprise editions (32-bit and 64-bit), with Service Pack 1, were all [http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/dec05/12-14CommonCriteriaPR.mspx certified] in December 2005.

Mac OS X

Apple's Mac OS X & Mac OS X Server running 10.3.6 both with the Common Criteria Tools Package installed were certified at CAPP/EAL3 in January 2005. [http://niap.nist.gov/cc-scheme/vpl/vpl_type.html#operatingsystem] [http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/commoncriteriatools.html]

Apple's Mac OS X & Mac OS X Server running the latest version 10.4.6 have not yet been fully evaluated however the Common Criteria Tools package is available. [http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/commoncriteriatoolsfor104.html]

GEMSOS

Gemini Multiprocessing Secure Operating System [http://www.aesec.com/] is a CC A1 (EAL7] ) system that runs on IA x86 processor type COTS hardware.

HP OpenVMS and SEVMS

CC B1 system formerly of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) later Compaq, now Hewlett-Packard (HP). [http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/428108.html]

See also

* Comparison of operating systems
* Security focused operating system
* Trusted operating system
* EnGarde Secure Linux

External links

* [http://niap.nist.gov/cc-scheme/vpl/vpl_type.html NIST published list of CC Evaluated Products]
* Roger R. Schell: [http://amcis2005.isqa.unomaha.edu/Schell-AMCIS-Keynote-050813a.pdf GEMSOS presentation]
* [http://www.decus.de/slides/sy2000/Vortraege_2803/1M01.PDF OpenVMS security presentation]