Re: [gentoo-user] Anyone running a hardened profile?

[<wabenbau@gmail.com>]

Michael Orlitzky <mjo@gentoo.org> wrote:

> On 09/06/2015 04:15 PM, walt wrote:
> > https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Hardened_Gentoo
> > 
> > That wiki page is very seductive.  It makes me want to drop
> > everything and select a hardened profile and re-emerge everything
> > from scratch.
> > 
> > But I have a feeling I'd soon be in big trouble if I did.  Is this
> > something that only gentoo devs should be messing with, or is this
> > a project that a typical gentoo end-user might hope to accomplish
> > without frequent suicidal thoughts?
> 
> It depends on how many hardening features you want to enable. It's a
> lot easier than it used to be because there's a kernel config thingy
> that lets you pick safe options without understanding all the
> details. You can get a lot of protection for very little risk by
> enabling pax/grsec and checking a few boxes in the hardened kernel
> config.
> 
> Just beware that there are kernel options that will clobber things
> like cpupower and others that will slow down specific programs like
> clamav with JIT. Anyway, we're all here because we like to tinker
> with things until they're broken, right? Give it a try and be sure to
> read the kernel help pages carefully and have fun. You can always
> switch back to a non-hardened kernel and everything will go back to
> normal.

I don't think so (but maybe I'm wrong). You have to compile your entire 
system with a hardened toolchain to get full hardened support (SSP and
maybe some other things). I think, to go back to a "normal state", you
have to recompile everything again with a non hardened toolchain.

--
Regards
wabe