Lightweight Portable Security

Lightweight Portable Security (LPS) is a Linux LiveCD, (or LiveUSB), developed and publicly distributed by the United States Department of Defense’s Software Protection Initiative^[2] that is designed to serve as a secure end node. It can run on almost any Intel-based computer (PC or Mac). LPS boots only in RAM, creating a pristine, non-persistent end node. It supports DoD-approved Common Access Card (CAC) readers, as required for authenticating users on DoD networks.^[3][4][5][6]

LPS-Public turns an untrusted system (such as a home computer) into a trusted network client. No trace of work activity (or malware) can be written to the local computer hard drive. As of September 2011 (version 1.2.5), the LPS public distribution includes a smart card-enabled Firefox browser supporting DoD's CAC and Personal Identity Verification (PIV) cards, a PDF and text viewer, Java, a file browser, remote desktop software (Citrix, Microsoft or VMware View), an SSH client, the public edition of Encryption Wizard and the ability to use USB flash drives. A Public Deluxe version is available that adds OpenOffice.org and Adobe Reader software.

Encryption Wizard

LPS comes with Encryption Wizard (EW), a simple, strong file and folder encryptor for protection of sensitive but unclassified information (FOUO, Privacy Act, CUI, etc.). Written in Java, EW encrypts all file types for data at rest and data in transit protection. Without installation or elevated privileges, EW runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, and other computers that support the Java software platform. With a simple drag and drop interface, EW offers 128-bit AES encryption, SHA-256 hashing, RSA signatures, searchable metadata, archives, compression, secure deleting, and PKI/CAC/PIV support. Encryption can be keyed from a passphrase or a PKI certificate. EW is GOTS—U.S. Government invented, owned, and supported software—and comes in two versions, a public version that uses the standard Java cryptographic library and a government-only version that uses a FIPS-140-2 certified crypto stack licensed from RSA Security. The two versions interoperate.

Public HTTPS access

The web site for distribution of LPS-Public is served over HTTPS, but uses a TLS certificate that is signed by a certificate authority managed directly by the Department of Defense. This CA is is not trusted by most non-DoD operating systems and browsers. Because of this, visiting the site or downloading the ISO will generate a browser security warning indicating that the certificate is not trusted. Military-issued devices already include this certificate authority in their list of trusted CAs, and so will not see these errors.

This article incorporates text from the US Department of Defense SPI web site.

See also

• IceWM
• Lightweight Linux distribution

References