Article View: comp.newprod
Article #311New secure O.S for Harris Night Hawk computers
From: Gail P. Truman
Date: Fri, 02 Oct 1992 00:34
Date: Fri, 02 Oct 1992 00:34
141 lines
6727 bytes
6727 bytes
NEW SECURE OPERATING SYSTEM FOR HARRIS NIGHT HAWK COMPUTER Harris Corporation's Computer Systems Division has introduced a new version of their enhanced security operating system for Night Hawk computer Secure applications. The Night Hawk CX/SX secure computing environment offers B1 level or C2 level security functionality. The secure UNIX operating system provides comprehensive multi-level security with less than five percent overhead even with complete system auditing activated. Designed to provide the flexibility and functionality of non-secure UNIX systems, CX/SX supports multi-level secure local area networking, multilevel secure relational data base management system, communications, file servers, office automation and message handling. CX/SX is an enhanced version of the CX/UX operating system that has been developed specifically to meet the Federal Government's criteria for multi-level secure computer systems (CSC-STD-004-85, DoD-STD-5200.28, the "Orange Book") at the B1 level of trust. CX/SX is currently in evaluation with the National Computer Security Center. Harris anticipates that CX/SX will be included on the Evaluated Products List during the first half of calendar year 1993. CX/SX is fully compatible with CX/UX and offers the following additional capabilities: * Improved User Identification and Authentication * Improved Discretionary Access Control (DAC) * Mandatory Access Control (MAC) * Security Audit Trail * Data Labeling * System Security Management Tools The CX/SX secure operating system is the result of a joint development project between Harris Computer System Division and the AT&T Federal Systems Division. It was derived from the UNIX operating system specifically for processing secure and sensitive data. Unlike many other implementations of secure UNIX, CX/SX provides B1 security with less than 5% overhead (compared to 20-40% for other secure operating systems). CX/SX supports multi-level, compartmentalized security, including up to 255 security levels each configured with up to 1024 categories. This allows each installation to be highly customized according to the specific needs of the site. Despite its flexibility, CX/SX is simple and cost-effective to administer with the shell commands and menu driven applications that are provided. The CX/UX 6.1 release consists of a new base level of the operating system, utilities, language processors, and documentation. This improvement blends AT&T's System V Release 4 UNIX features with enhancements from Berkeley's 4.3 * POSIX 1003.1 CX/UX release 6.1 is compliant with the IEEE POSIX 1003.1 standard (also known as ISO/IEC 9945-1). It is based on CX/UX 5.3 which was validated by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) in December 1991. * SVID 3 Conformance The System V Interface Definition, Issue 3, (SVID3) specifies a SVR4 based environment that allows users to create applications software that is independent of any particular computer hardware. Any application program using only components defined in SVID3 will be source compatible with, and portable to, any computer system that supports the interface. * SVR4 DDI/DKI Conformance The Device Driver Interface (DDI) and Driver-Kernel Interface (DKI) attempts to standardize the interface between device drivers and the kernel. By regulating this driver-kernel interaction, source compatibility (and ultimately binary compatibility) for device drivers can be accomplished. * SVR4 Streams Conformance Release 6.1 has been enhanced to contain the AT&T SVR4 Streams functionality. This logic is based on the standard SVR4 source, modified as necessary for the CX/UX multi-threaded kernel. In addition, extensive testing and correction has been done to correct "holes" in earlier versions of the Streams logic. * SVR4 File System Organization Release 6.1 adopts the file system directory hierarchy used by SVR4, which is based on three partitions, /, /usr, and /var, instead of two. A large number of files and directories have been renamed to correspond to the new organization, and commands and library functions have been modified to reference files by their new pathnames. Backwards compatibility is provided using symbolic links for most (but not all) pathnames that have changed. * Internationalization Support All internationalization support provided by AT&T SVR4, with the exception of the AT&T alternate message catalog format and commands, are available in this release. This support is a super-set of the requirements of X/Open Portability Guide, ANSI C, and POSIX 1003.1. * ANSI C The C compiler released with 6.1 has a run time option to allow the compilation of ANSI C compliant programs, By default, it will compile the previously accepted Kernighan and Ritchie compliant programs. Night Hawk systems offer symmetric multiprocessing with the CS/SX Trusted Computing Base. Depending upon model, Night Hawk systems are expandable from one CPU to eight CPUs executing in a peer-to-peer relationship under one scheduler and operating system. Night Hawk systems currently range from 20 to 800 MIP configurations and execute a wide variety of commercially available software packages. High-performance multiprocessing capabilities coupled with the highest real-time response ensure that Night Hawk systems offer fast system throughput for message handling applications and communications networks. CX/SX contains unique system services which allow for tailoring the system performance to meet demanding high traffic situations. For example, true priority scheduling and dynamic load balancing are just two services which are implemented to guarantee fast response and message processing. Even under the demands of full B1 level security auditing, CX/SX responds in real-time and provides the highest system throughput of systems in its class. For more information of Harris Night Hawk computer systems, call 1 800 4 Harris Extension 4633. email: gailt@misg.csd.harris.com Mail ???? c/o Harris Computer System Division 2101 West Cypress Creek Rd. Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!ukma!darwin.sura.net!sgiblab!wyse!mcdchg!usenet From: gailt@misg.csd.harris.com (Gail P. Truman) Newsgroups: comp.newprod Subject: New secure O.S for Harris Night Hawk computers Message-ID: <1992Oct2.003456.15331@chg.mcd.mot.com> Date: 2 Oct 92 00:34:56 GMT Sender: usenet@chg.mcd.mot.com (Ron Heiby) Followup-To: poster Organization: Harris Computer Systems Division, Ft. Lauderdale FL Lines: 141 Approved: usenet@chg.mcd.mot.com