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Show HN: Porting OpenBSD Pledge() to Linux

justine.lol Essays & writing Essays & articles Security & privacy Candidate

Resurfaced independently across 3 calendar years, with breakout response in 2 of them.

submissions
3
submitters
3
observed span
2022–2025
peak thread · 128 comments
571 pts
latest 20+ return · 2023-10-27
194 pts

Submission timeline

2007–2026

One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.

First comments on top threads

HN comment order

Thanks Justine, you're doing the Lord's work here. One of the best introductions I've seen to pledge() is Kristaps Dzonson's writeup on it that you can find here [1]. The whole website in general is furthermore a guide on how to write webapps in C, which may sound like a crazy idea to some people who have written it off as everything from an elaborate joke to a security nightmare that nobody should ever consider doing [2], but for people…

One of the things I feel OpenBSD has gotten right with pledge and unveil is the placement of responsibility. It's the developers who know and understands the code the best, so they are the most qualified to lock down the code. AppArmor and SELinux is perhaps better suited for "easy" retrofitting and the rules are frequently shipped by the developers, but both are much harder to use and somewhat error-prone. I've seen more clients simply turning of SELinux or AppArmor…

The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.

Breakout years
2

100+ points or 50+ comments

Total points
770

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Total comments
160

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Every submission

DateTitle as submittedByPointsComments
2022-07-14Show HN: Porting OpenBSD Pledge() to LinuxFirst breakout · Best threadjart571128
2023-10-27Porting OpenBSD Pledge() to LinuxLatest 20+ point returnuntilted19432
2025-03-11Porting OpenBSD Pledge() to Linux (2022)jaypatelani50