SELinux patent issues?

SELinux patent issues?

[Pax Dickinson]

Hi all,

I saw this comment about SELinux patent issues on Slashdot and was 
hoping someone could enlighten me as to whether there's anything to this?

---

SELinux and the Patent Trolls
(Score:2)
by mpapet (761907) <mpapet@@@yahoo...com> on 07:23 PM December 12th, 
2005 (#14243004)
(http://www.michaelpapet.com/)
I checked on this a few months ago and found that SELinux may be 
patented by the company that appeared to write it for the NSA, the 
secure computing corporation.(SCC)

Patents owned by the SCC include:

5,867,647 System and method for securing compiled program code
5,822,435 Trusted path subsystem for workstations
5,796,836 Scalable key agile cryptography
5,596,718 Secure computer network using trusted path subsystem which 
encrypts/decrypts and communicates with user through local workstation 
user I/O devices without utilizing workstation processor
5,502,766 Data enclave and trusted path system
5,499,297 System and method for trusted path communications
5,276,735 Data enclave and trusted path system
5,272,754 Secure computer interface
6,772,332 System and method for providing secure internetwork services 
via an assured pipeline
6,658,571 Security framework for dynamically wrapping software 
applications executing in a computing system
6,640,307 System and method for controlling access to documents stored 
on an internal network
6,453,419 System and method for implementing a security policy
6,357,010 System and method for controlling access to documents stored 
on an internal network
6,332,195 Secure server utilizing separate protocol stacks
6,321,336 System and method for redirecting network traffic to provide 
secure communication
6,301,658 Method and system for authenticating digital certificates 
issued by an authentication hierarchy
6,219,707 System and method for achieving network separation
6,209,101 Adaptive security system having a hierarchy of security servers
6,182,226 System and method for controlling interactions between networks
6,144,934 Binary filter using pattern recognition
6,072,942 System and method of electronic mail filtering using 
interconnected nodes
6,003,084 Secure network proxy for connecting entities
5,983,350 Secure firewall supporting different levels of authentication 
based on address or encryption status
5,968,133 Enhanced security network time synchronization device and method
5,950,195 Generalized security policy management system and method
5,918,018 System and method for achieving network separation
5,915,087 Transparent security proxy for unreliable message exchange 
protocols
5,913,024 Secure server utilizing separate protocol stacks

My attempts at getting some kind of feedback from the SCC were in vain 
because no one called me back.

Does Redhat license this? Will the patent trolls come after me if I 
attempt to use it in a commercial OSS way?

Any insight would be great.
---

Thanks, Pax

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Re: SELinux patent issues?

[Tom]

On Tue, Dec 13, 2005 at 09:14:04AM -0500, Pax Dickinson wrote:
> I saw this comment about SELinux patent issues on Slashdot and was 
> hoping someone could enlighten me as to whether there's anything to this?

That is an extremely old matter that /. apparently just dug up again.
If you search the archives, you will find a very long thread about it,
which essentially concludes with: Don't worry about them, the NSA has
you covered and SCC issued a statement back in, duh I can't
remember, 2003 or 2004.


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Re: SELinux patent issues?

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Tue, Dec 13, 2005 at 09:14:04AM -0500, Pax Dickinson wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I saw this comment about SELinux patent issues on Slashdot and was 
> hoping someone could enlighten me as to whether there's anything to this?
 
 the last time this was raised (a year ago), stephen answered
 basically implying that the issue would not arise.
 
 l.


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Re: SELinux patent issues?

[Stephen Smalley]

On Tue, 2005-12-13 at 09:14 -0500, Pax Dickinson wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I saw this comment about SELinux patent issues on Slashdot and was 
> hoping someone could enlighten me as to whether there's anything to this?

See:
http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/info/faq.cfm#I22
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=selinux&m=104506596009834&w=2
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=104506496507929&w=2
http://lists.osdl.org/pipermail/security_sig/2005-February/000131.html
http://lists.osdl.org/pipermail/security_sig/2005-February/000133.html

-- 
Stephen Smalley
National Security Agency


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Re: SELinux patent issues?

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Tue, Dec 13, 2005 at 09:14:04AM -0500, Pax Dickinson wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I saw this comment about SELinux patent issues on Slashdot and was 
> hoping someone could enlighten me as to whether there's anything to this?
 
 most of the references i can find are dating back 3 years.

 reminder of nsa's response (but no link to that response)

 http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0502.3/0150.html

 some discussion... numerous...

 http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/list-archive/0208/date.cfm

 again a reference to SCC's "statement of assurance":

 http://lwn.net/Articles/103230/

 http://lwn.net/Articles/2376/


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