Surely at least some of our readers thought about which operating system they use in our Armed Forces. After all, we all understand that Windows cannot stand on any missile system that is on combat duty. Today we will slightly open the veil of secrecy and talk about the OS MSVS. This is the so-called Mobile system of the Armed Forces. Its name speaks of the scope, but we’ll tell you how it is arranged in general terms.
Creation Background
For the first time, the security criteria for computer systems were formulated back in the late 60s of the last century. In the mid-80s in the United States, all these developments were collected in one document. Thus was born the "Orange Book" of the Ministry of Defense - the first security standard for computer systems. Following similar documents appeared in European countries and Canada. In 2005, based on them, the international safety standard ISO / IEC 15408 "General security criteria" was prepared.
In Russia, similar studies were conducted at the 22nd Central Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense. The final result of the development was the receipt in 2002 of the OS MSVS in the Russian Armed Forces. A version of the state standard based on the requirements of ISO / IEC was adopted in 2008.
Why did the military have its own OS
The operational systems that we use on a daily basis are not suitable for use in government agencies in terms of security settings. The State Technical Commission under the President of the Russian Federation formulated them as follows:
- Information must be protected from unauthorized access, both internally and externally.
- The system should not contain undocumented features, in other words, there should not be any "Easter eggs" in the OS code.
In addition, a secure operating system must have a multi-level hierarchical access structure and have separate administrative functions.
Thus, the task of creating a specialized closed OS is not as simple as it seems at first glance. The absence of undocumented capabilities suggests that the source code and technical description of all work procedures will be thoroughly studied at the certification center. And this is the area of trade secrets of the owner corporations or the intellectual property of developers. Such a paradox forces one to look towards open OS, because it is almost impossible to obtain complete technical documentation for proprietary software.
GOST R requirements
FSTEC, as a service responsible for information security throughout the country, established a separation of OS according to the degree of protection of the processed information. For convenience, all data is summarized in one table.
Security groups and classes | State secret | Confidential information | |
| Secretly | Personal data | |
| Absolutely secretly | | |
| Special importance | | | Official secret | | |
| I | 1 A | 1B | 1B | 1 g | 1 d | Multiuser with different rights |
| II | 2 A | | | 2 B | | Multiuser with the same rights |
| III | 3 A | | | 3 B | | Single player |
The table shows that, according to a number of requirements, three groups and nine classes of protection against unauthorized access are established, and already further separation is made for them to be allowed to confidential information of various kinds.
Linux based
Why is Linux so convenient that they willingly take it to serve in the state apparatus? Indeed, for the most part, ordinary users are afraid of him, like a devil of incense. Let's figure it out. First, let's pay attention to the license under which Linux is distributed. This is the so-called GPL2 - a universal public, or free, license. Anyone can get the source code and create their own product on its basis. In other words, no one bothers to take the best Linux distributions and use them in developing their own secure OS.
The world experience of government agencies shows that the transition to free software is happening everywhere, the idea is in demand and it justifies itself. Leading countries of the world, such as the USA, Germany, Japan, and China and India rapidly approaching them, actively use Linux in the public sphere and education.
MSVS and its contents
The mobile system of the Armed Forces version 3.0 has worked in the troops for a decade and a half, it is now being replaced by a more advanced product, and we can safely look "under the hood" of a veteran. So, this is a network OS operating in multi-user mode using a graphical user interface. Supports hardware platforms:
- Intel
SPAPC / Elbrus.
MIPS
- IBM System / 390.
It is based on the best Linux distributions available at that time. Many modules of the system were borrowed from RedHat Linux and recompiled according to the requirements of the Ministry of Defense. In other words, the Armed Forces mobile system is a Linux RPM distribution with all associated application programs and development tools.
Support for file systems is at the beginning of the century, but since the most common ones existed then, this indicator is not critical.
MSVS Versions
Despite the fact that this is a network OS, it does not have any software repositories familiar to any Linuxoid. All software comes bundled on installation CDs. Any program that is used in this system is pre-certified by the Ministry of Defense. And since the procedure is far from fast, a limited number of versions and changes to them have been released over the course of a decade and a half.
The developer of MSWS is the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Management Automation in the Non-Industrial Sphere. On its official page, you can find data on versions of the MSVS that are currently supported and have the required security certificates from the Ministry of Defense.
The mobile system of the Armed Forces for 2017 is represented by two supported assemblies:
Version 5.0, located on the VNIINS website, has a security certificate of the Ministry of Defense, but was never officially accepted for supply to the troops.
Successor to the WSWS
The next protected OS, which was presented as a replacement for MSVS, which had been out of service for a decade and a half, was Astra Linux. Unlike its predecessor, who received a security certificate only from the Ministry of Defense, Astra received all possible certificates in Russia, and these are documents from the Moscow Region, the FSB and the FSTEC. Thanks to this, it can be used in any government agencies, and the presence of several versions adapted for different hardware platforms further expands the scope of its application. As a result, it can integrate all devices under its control - from mobile to stationary server equipment.
Astra Linux is a modern Linux-based distribution based on deb packages, it uses the latest kernel version and the latest software. The list of supported processors and their architectures is also expanded to include modern samples. The list of officially published versions allows us to hope for the success of this software product at least in the public sphere and defense industry.
Finally
In this article, we talked about the OS MSVS - the main operating system of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, which faithfully served for 15 years and is still at the "combat post". In addition, her successor was briefly described. Perhaps some of our readers will be encouraged to look at what Linux is and make an unbiased opinion about the product.