Grsecurity needs a sponsor to survive

The grsecurity project has released version 2.1.12 of its patches for the Linux kernel 2.6.27.10 and 2.4.37. Grsecurity is a security extension for Linux that features role-based access control (RBAC) and gives protection against buffer overflows. Besides a number of bugfixes, this new version provides support for the capabilities contained in more recent versions of Linux 2.6.

Along with the new version, the main developer of grsecurity has announced that further development will cease at the end of March unless a replacement is found for the project's recently departed sponsor. Sponsoring could be of interest to firms that use grsecurity for comprehensive support services and an option to influence future features is promised in return. On the other hand, the Linux kernel already contains SELinux, a security solution with similar features to Grsecurity, and distributions such as OpenSuse, Suse Linux and Ubuntu incorporate AppArmor, a security extension which is more user-friendly.

The grsecurity project had previously experienced financial difficulties in 2004, but then a number of firms proved ready to support further development.

(djwm)