grsecurity forums

I am wondering what is enabled/disabled when you choose the pre-defined security modes of low/medium/high (or whatever the options were) when you compile the kernel. I basically have no idea what half the bells and whistles do so when I went with the custom setting I enabled a bunch of things I had no idea about. After compiling the kernel I was locked out of X and a couple of other console applications I commonly use. I was wondering if anybody had an in-depth explanation/faq/how-to typed up of what every option does, how to tinker with its settings, and what some common setups are. I am subscribed to the e-mail list and recently there have been a lot of postings about distribution specific settings... none of them have talked about Slackware 8.1 though which is what I use. In the meantime I think I'm going to attempt to use the Low security setting, recompile, and see where that lands me. I would really like to understand all of the options in depth so I can fully understand how to implement good security measures properly. Right now I'm testing it out on a few of my home workstations but will eventually apply the patch to a few servers once I figure out WTF I'm doing Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

read the kernel configuration help, when you're choosing your security level. It will tell you what features are in each level. If you want more information on each feature, choose customized after you choose your security level. You can then view the help on each feature, and change your setting accordingly. Also, to fix X on your system, download chpax from http://pageexec.virtualave.net, compile it, and run chpax -sp /usr/X11R6/bin/XFree86

-Brad