this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2023
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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This is VERY important for the future of Linux.
If you dive into it, Linux security is a total mess. You have SELinux, userspace and all that, permission systems and mandatory access control.
And then you have the Kernel, which is (to roughly quote Daniel Micay from some 5yo Reddit comment) "like you imagine systemd, but way worse and completely established". It is a huge set of software written in unsafe C, with complete access over the entire system, no matter if its just some ancient driver, some weird unused filesystem support or whatnot.
The kernel is huge bloat, and even if you dont want to accept it, a big reason is Distros not getting their shit together and working on the same thing. If drivers cant be implemented in userspace, as every distro does that differently and things break, for the sake of unifying everything it gets baked into the Kernel.
"Kernel hardening", as far as I understand it, is mostly just restricting those unneeded features, making it log less critical info, blocking some external manipulation...
But the essence really is that the Linux Kernel isnt something everyone should use. There should be modules for the hardware components, external drivers that are installed along.
I guess Gentoo is right here, but its very inconvenient to use. But having your own custom Kernel, only containing modules you need, would be a start. In the End though seperate drivers are necessary.