An operating system that has quietly become the world's most popular operating system

An operating system that has quietly become the world's most popular operating system

On this day in 1987, Minix was born

Introduction to Minix

Minix is ​​the abbreviation of Mini Unix, a mini version of Unix-like operating system (about 300MB).

Minix was originally a UNIX-like operating system developed by Professor Andrew S. Tanenbaum from the Computer Science Department of Vrije University in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The original intention of the development was to facilitate teaching use (because AT&T After the launch of Version 7 Unix, the Unix source code was privatized). The entire source code of Minix totals about 12,000 lines and is placed in the appendix of his book as an example. The system requirements for Minix were very simple at the time, requiring only three disks to start. Operating Systems: Design and Implementation(ISBN 0-13-637331-3)

Andrew S. Tanenbaum (March 16, 1944 -) Computer scientist, professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, specializes in operating systems, author of the Unix-like teaching operating system Minix, and published many computer science textbooks, such as "Modern Operating Systems", "Computer Composition", etc.

Minix initially charged users a very low licensing fee. It was not until 2004 that Tanenbaum re-architected and designed the entire system, further modularized the program, and launched MINIX 3. Rereleased under the BSD license as open source software.

The goal of MINIX 3 is to be more secure than Windows or Linux. In Tanenbaum's research proposal that received a 5-year, 2.5 million euro grant from the European Research Council (European Research Council) at the time, Tanenbaum explained why he believed that existing operating systems Not safe:

The most serious reliability and security issues are those related to the operating system. The core problem is that existing operating systems do not comply with POLA - the PrincipleOfLeastAuthority. POLA is talking about the way the system is divided into components so that defects that are bound to exist in one component will not affect other components. Each component should only be given the permissions it needs to do its job, no more and no less. Specifically, it should not have the right to read and write data belonging to other components, not have the right to read any computer memory outside its own address space, not have the right to execute sensitive operation instructions that are not related to it, and not have the right to access I that it should not access. /O devices, etc. Existing operating systems completely violate the above principles, resulting in numerous reliability and security problems.

Minix Popularity and Threats

Speaking of the most popular operating systems, we may subconsciously think of some of the current mainstream operating systems such as Linux, Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. But the truth may not be what we think. You may not know it, but all processors launched by Intel in recent years run an operating system.

Yes, this system is MINIX, and it is because of Intel that it has become the most popular operating system in the world, but this has caused people's attention and concern.

The reason why people are worried is that there is a core component in modern Intel processors-Intel ME-Intel's Management Engine, which is used to manage and coordinate many internal modules, especially after the integration of traditional chipsets. The processor has almost become a SoC single-chip system, and it needs a "general manager", and MINIX is responsible for this job.

Once the Intel Management Engine is compromised, it may leave serious backdoors for attackers. The researchers specifically pointed out that due to its important role in initializing hardware, power management, and starting the main processor, it cannot be completely disabled. This worries security researchers because no one except Intel can review whether there is a backdoor (after all, Intel uses its own modified MINIX 3 and it is not open source)

MINIX has its own CPU core and proprietary firmware inside the processor. It is completely independent from other parts and is completely invisible. It is invisible to the operating system and users, and its running permissions have reached Ring -3.

You know, the permission levels of the applications we use every day are Ring 3, and the operating system kernel is Ring 0, which is also the lowest permission level that ordinary users can access. MINIX actually goes as deep as Ring -3.

In fact, MINIX runs continuously even in hibernation or even shutdown state, because the Intel management engine starts to perform management work when the processor starts up, and is also responsible for chip-level security functions.

This gives MINIX its supreme status, and as long as your computer uses a processor launched by Intel in recent years, there is one running silently, making it truly the most popular system in the world.

Minix and Linux

Making it truly the most popular system in the world.

Minix and Linux

Linux was created by Linus Torvalds under the influence of Minix (Linus did not like the MS-DOS operating system on his 386 computer, so he installed Minix and used it as a sample to develop the original Linux kernel). But this impact is more on the non-technical level, to be precise, it is a kind of spiritual "encouragement". In terms of design, Linux is very different from Minix. Before the Linux system had its own native file system, the Minix file system was used. Minix uses microkernels in its core design, which divides the operating system into microkernels and service programs that provide file systems, memory management, drivers and other services; while Linux uses macrokernels like the original Unix. At the beginning of the development of Linux, the two sides also had a wonderful debate on the newsgroup in 1992, known as the Tanenbaum-Linus debate. Minix authors and supporters considered the use of macro kernels a technological step back, while Linux supporters believed that Minix itself was not practical. Next, I will divide a study plan for each student!

study plan

Then the question comes again. As a newbie, what should I learn first and what should I learn second?
Since you have asked so straightforwardly, I will tell you what you should start with:

Learning material sharing

Of course,giving only plans but not learning materials is tantamount to being a hooligan. Here is a list of [282G] for you You can click on the QR code link below to get a learning material package for network security engineers from entry level to proficiency.