When it comes to security, every software & IT company gives priority to the concern. However, we see Google funding a security project that is led by 2 Linux Kernel developers – Gustavo Silva and Nathan Chancellor.
Linux has 20,000+ contributors as of August 2020 and more than a million commits. In spite of that, it has faced many security concerns for not prioritizing it earlier. The Open Source Security Foundation of Linux and the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard suggested that security audits for open-source projects need to be prioritized with proper funding.
What are the Linux Developers Working on?
Chancellor has been working with Linux Kernel for 4.5 years. For the past 2 years, he has been working on the ClangBuiltLinux project. He has been fixing bugs that were found in the Clang/LLVM compiler tools.
Silvia, on the other hand, has been a member of the Kernel Self Protection Project. He’s among the best 5 developers that Linux Kernel has had since 2017. His main work in the field of security is to transform zero-length & one-element arrays into flexible-array members. This helps in eliminating buffer overflows.
The duo are working towards building a Kernel that resistant to any kind of attack. To achieve this, they are using LLVM compilers for improved security and developing defenses that can prevent classes of errors. Their aim is to make Linux Kernel the most reliable operating system in terms of security.
The director of Linux Foundation has extended its gratitude towards Google for funding the initiative undertaken by Chancellor and Silva of security development.
