Security Strategies in Linux Platforms and Applications, 3rd Edition

How Options for Journals, Formats, and File Sizes Affect Security

As odd as it sounds, the choices made with respect to journals, formats, and file sizes can affect security with respect to availability. To that end, the selection of a filesystem can affect how well it resists an attack. A filesystem journal keeps track of transactions that have been applied to the filesystem. These transactions can be checked against the data in the filesystem to ensure integrity and to apply any changes that are missing. For this reason, a journaled filesystem—that is, a filesystem that keeps track of changes to be written—is more likely to survive a catastrophic event such as an unexpected power outage. Not all the filesystems Linux supports are journaled, ...