SELINUX - Why?

[Mike Klinke]

On Wednesday 27 July 2005 14:24, Mike McCarty wrote:
> What I mean is, I ask "Why should I run selinux?" The answer
> then seems to be "We don't know, but if you don't bad things
> might happen to your system due to malicious programs."

Seems to me the only one who can answer this for you is well, you.  
I see it the same question as "What does a firewall do for me?" or 
"What does a anti-virus utility do for me?"

If you don't connect to the Internet or use E-mail, neither will 
offer you the advantages they will to someone who does.  How do you 
use your computers?

Your perception of the possible threats will be proportional to your 
skill to develop, understand, or have been bitten by, those threats 
yourself.  For example, this week an announcement was made where 
vim, the most common editor on *nix can be used remotely to attack 
your system if someone can get you to open a ASCII text file.  Only 
you will know if this is something you typically will do on your 
computers and if so, be able to evaluate whether SELinux will offer 
you protection from this paticular threat.  

In a different realm but essentially the same question; "How much 
insurance do you buy for your car and why?"  I don't think there's 
a one-size-fits-all answer.


Regards, Mike Klinke