紅帽公司日前宣布，他們將開源他們的身份管理和安全系統軟件的源碼，此舉是為了證明作為開源的安全管理解決方案，同樣也能提供非常好的安全性能。
紅帽公司是在本周3公布他們的紅帽認證管理系統的全部源碼，這套軟件是紅帽用於用戶身份識別以及交易管理的安全基礎架構。這套系統來自紅帽對AOL的相關產品的收購得到的。但是當時紅帽僅僅公開了和Apache網頁服務器和紅帽目錄服務器相關的源碼。
紅帽同時在該軟件源碼公布的同時聲明，紅帽的這些舉動是為了證明：開源開發模式下的軟件同樣能夠做的很優秀。紅帽不僅僅向其企業級Linux產品用戶提供，其公司內部也在使用這些安全基礎軟件。
Red Hat has open-sourced its identity-management and security system to promote its assertion that open-source software provides the most secure infrastructure.
The Linux vendor said Wednesday it has released the entire source code for the Red Hat Certificate System, its security framework for managing user identities and transactions on a network. Red Hat acquired the system from AOL three years ago, but only parts of the system, which uses the Apache Web server and the Red Hat Directory Server, were open source.
According to a blog post by Red Hat's security team, the move "further demonstrates Red Hat's belief that the open source development model creates more secure software." In addition to offering the Red Hat Certificate System to users of its Red Hat Enterprise Linux product, the company also uses it internally.
The team said now that the system is open source, it will be easier for developers to integrate the technology with other security- and network management-related projects from Red Hat.
One of those is the freeIPA project, which provides central management of identity, policy, and auditing for Unix and Linux using open-source and open-standards technologies. According to Red Hat, by integrating technology from the certificate system, the freeIPA project eventually will offer central management and provisioning for machine and service digital certificates.
Red Hat is best known for its Linux distribution, but has been working steadily for several years to broaden its open-source portfolio beyond the OS. New CEO Jim Whitehurst said recently that the company, more than ever, needs to demonstrate more support for the open-source community outside of Linux and visibly promote the continued adoption of open-source software among businesses. Whitehurst took over CEO duties from longtime Red Hat leader Matthew Szulik in January.
