Solar Designer
dec2dfcd58
Unfortunately, the numbered list ended up looking differently than it did in the preview - drop the numbering to work around this.
4.3 KiB
SIG/Security Wiki
The Security SIG repositories provide extra security-related packages and security-hardened override packages (replacing those from the main distribution) for Rocky Linux and other Enterprise Linux (EL) distributions.
Responsibilities
Developing and maintaining various security related packages that are not in upstream EL. Identifying, developing, and maintaining security hardening changes relative to upstream EL packages. Occasionally including/backporting additional security fixes that are not yet in upstream EL packages. Contributing to the respective upstreams where practical.
Repo Installation
On Rocky Linux
dnf install rocky-release-security
On another compatible EL distro
Download the release package containing our repository configuration file and package signing public key. Use the version that corresponds to the major version of your EL distro.
Verify the package file's SHA-256 digest with sha256sum. The currently expected digests are:
8daf0934c8b5cfce1f5c2dc53ea0118102940bf307c7cc8863ab718696863da6 rocky-release-security-9-2.el9.noarch.rpm
15aebef7257d4ff3c59a3b4e45acf8fae9894a10ddd2c924dfd521033337e96c rocky-release-security-8-2.el8.noarch.rpm
This isn't as secure as checking the package signature would be if you previously had our package signing public key, but on another distro you probably don't have that yet, so checking the digest against its copy obtained from this separate website is a best-effort measure.
Install the package with rpm -U --nodeps. The --nodeps option is needed to bypass the dependency check on our rocky-release package. In essense, you're manually confirming to rpm that you're installing on a compatible distro.
Packages
Extra packages (for EL8 and EL9)
- lkrg (Linux Kernel Runtime Guard)
- passwdqc (Password/passphrase strength checking and policy enforcement)
Override packages (currently only for EL9)
- glibc (adds many security-hardening changes originating from Owl and ALT Linux on top of EL package)
- openssh (fewer shared libraries exposed in sshd processes while otherwise fully matching EL package's functionality)
The changes are described in more detail in the package changelogs. More packages/changes are planned, including override packages also for EL8.
Known-effective vulnerability mitigations and fixes
glibc-2.34-60.el9_2.security.0.2 (specifically the .0.2 version!) includes mitigations sufficient to avoid security exposure of CVE-2023-4911 and a backport of upstream glibc fix of CVE-2023-4527 that was not yet in upstream EL.
The inclusion of additional security fixes will be "reverted" if and when those get included in upstream EL packages that we rebase our changes on.
Source code
Just like for other Rocky Linux SIGs, the source trees for Security SIG packages are maintained in per-package git repositories. Each repository contains branches r8 and/or r9 corresponding to target EL version.
Contributing
If anyone else wants to join this effort - in any capacity including development, maintenance, testing, documentation, user support, spreading the word, or something else - please join the Mattermost channel below and let us know!
We also welcome well-reasoned suggestions/feedback/preferences on direction we should take (e.g., only making changes on top of EL's vs. offering newer upstream versions), what else to package, and what other changes to include.
Meetings / Communications
We hang out in our Security Mattermost channel.
Members
Some of the people particularly active with setting up this SIG so far:
| Name | Mattermost Name |
|---|---|
| Neil Hanlon | @neil |
| Scott Shinn | @atomicturtle |
| Solar Designer | @solardiz |