Security in Computing, Third Edition

5.7. Summary of Security in Operating Systems

We study operating systems in depth because they are at the heart of security systems for modern computers. They must provide mechanisms for both separation and sharing, mechanisms that must be robust and yet easy to use.

Developing secure operating systems involves four activities. First, the environment to be protected must be well understood. Through policy statements and models, the essential components of systems are identified, and the interactions among components can be studied. This chapter has presented a variety of policies and models of security. Whereas the policies covered confidentiality and integrity, the models ranged from reference monitors and information flow filters to multilevel ...