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To be fair the article wasn't a light read. It sounds to me like they're taking Erlang concepts to the next level and baking them into the fundamental architec
by ambition 18y ago
To be fair the article wasn't a light read.
It sounds to me like they're taking Erlang concepts to the next level and baking them into the fundamental architecture of the OS.
- stcredzero 18y agoNot only that, but Singularity allows fine-grained security along the lines of capabilities. (Arguably Erlang has something like capabilities baked in as well.) This is the way security should have been done for internet-connected end-user controlled computers. What we have now is security meant to be managed by super-knowledgeable super-users.
- mleonhard 18y agoWhat security does Erlang have? Does it have more than a single security mechanism: a shared secret (cookie) for allowing communication between nodes?
- a-priori 18y agoNope, that's it. Erlang is designed for cluster environments, and the cookie method is lightweight and good enough for that sort of environment. If you want better security, unfortunately you have to roll it yourself. You could write a message router that tunnels Erlang messages over TCP, and apply some sort of authentication process to that. Erlang applications that are exposed to the Internet do not allow Erlang connections from the outside, but rather implement a custom socket protocol and only use Erlang distribution internally. I hear that they're planning on adding better security in future versions, but I don't know any details about that.
- scott_s 18y agoThis is Hacker News. I expect every article to not be "a light read."
- Raphael 18y agoI tend to expect the same from the comments.