SUSE/OpenSUSE: MicroOS, Rancher, and OpenSUSE Survey

During 2021 we have been starting to focus more in security for MicroOS. By default MicroOS is a fairly secure distribution: during the development all the changes are publicly reviewed, fixes (including CVEs) are integrated first (or at the same time) in Tumbleweed, we have read-only root system and a tool to recover old snapshots, and periodically the security team audit some of the new components. Also, the move from AppArmor to SELinux should help to standardize the security management.

But we really want to rise the bar when it is possible. For example, we are starting to think on how to enable IMA/EVM properly in the distribution, or what alternatives we have for full disk encryption supported by a TPM. There are some evaluation on dm-verity inside the new Transactional Image Update installer.

Another area where we make progress in MicroOS is how to measure the health of our systems, detect remotely when an unauthorized change has been made (remote attestation), and actuate over it globally and as fast as possible.

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The openSUSE Project has posted results from a recent survey that ran between Oct. 7 and Oct. 29.

The aim was to gather more information from open-source developers, development teams, packagers and maintainers. The survey also aimed to determine the satisfaction level of contributors and better understand the complexities and challenges they encounter with the project’s development. The survey provided an area to comment and provide suggestions to improve relevant aspects of the project and its tools.