TrustedBSD Extensions Project

[Brooks Davis]

On Wed, Apr 12, 2000 at 12:41:09PM -0400, stanislav shalunov wrote:
> What if your disk controller goes bad and decides to write a block of
> TOP SECRET information onto CLASSIFIED hard drive once in every ten
> thousand requests?
> 
> You would need to have a trusted disk controller that has extensive
> self-checks.  Do you know of such disk controllers in the market for
> PCs?  I don't.

In a practical sense, this doesn't matter because the "touch rule" always
applies.  The "touch rule" states that if something touches a higher
classification system it it automaticaly classified at that level.
For example, if you plug an unclasified system into a secret network
regardless of what it does there, it is clasified.  Given that inserting
an unclassified *write-protected* floppy into a classified system makes
it classified, you can safely assume that all data on any PC system must
be treated as having the highest classification on the system.  It's not
very nice or even very practical, but that's likely the way it is.

-- Brooks

-- 
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