Tripwire Security for Linux Goes Open-Source

Tripwire, Inc., a provider of network security solutions, has announced that it will release the source code for its Linux-based e-commerce software product.

The move, which has been announced alongside strategic partnerships with Linux players Caldera Systems, Red Hat (Nasdaq: RHAT) and SGI, Inc. (NYSE: SGI), will open development of the Tripwire flagship security product to other software programmers. The open source code will be available for download on the SourceForge resource site maintained by VA Linux Systems.

“Our decision to create an open source model for our Linux product coupled with our new partnerships with Caldera, Red Hat and SGI, allows us to extend our integrity assessment capabilities across the thousands of additional Linux enterprises that are playing a key role in today’s e-commerce and e-business markets,” commented W. Wyatt Starnes, Tripwire CEO, president and co-founder.

SourceForge, according to VA Linux, is designed to help open-source projects accelerate development and create better software by consolidating development efforts, information and user feedback. The site, launched in early January 2000, hosts some 1,750 open-source projects that have access to its 10,500 registered users and testers.

Other Linux industry players which have started to move their open source to VA Linux’s SourceForge site include KDE, a software development company which provides Linux users with a graphical user interface (GUI), making the Linux desktop resemble the user-friendly Windows environment.

Tripping Up the E-Attackers

The Tripwire security product offers intrusion detection, damage assessment and discovery, forensics and system compliance and lockdown capabilities. According to the company, the product was able to weed out zombie agents that were planted and exploited by hackers/crackers in recent distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.

Tripwire has already created a version of the product that has been included in recent releases of Red Hat’s Linux OS package through the applications CD. Versions of the product will also be made available for Caldera’s OpenLinux e-commerce server, SGI’s Internet Server and similar products from other major Linux vendors.

The company offers, in addition to Linux support, product versions for the Compaq Tru64, HP-UX, IBM AIX, SGI IRIX, Solaris and Windows NT platforms.

Linux is a UNIX-based open-source operating system that offers an alternative to the proprietary model of Microsoft Windows and other products. Although the OS is distributed at no charge, vendors have created an extremely lucrative market by offering support services and building proprietary applications that work with Linux.