If you’re mandated or regulated to MLS or MAC etc, SELinux is a security control that enables you to comply through expanded and expressive policy controls.
When I hear dislike for it, it’s usually because people are using SELinux as a “make my personal computer safer” tool rather than the “we’ve hundreds of thousands of differently classified sensitive documents and thousands of employees with different clearances”.
MAC/DAC/MLS isn’t designed for personal computing and if you think SELinux is the solution you personally need, you might need to reevaluate your threat model (as any external actor will seek to bypass kernel controls entirely e.g. CVE-2025-0078).
If you’re mandated or regulated to MLS or MAC etc, SELinux is a security control that enables you to comply through expanded and expressive policy controls.
When I hear dislike for it, it’s usually because people are using SELinux as a “make my personal computer safer” tool rather than the “we’ve hundreds of thousands of differently classified sensitive documents and thousands of employees with different clearances”.
MAC/DAC/MLS isn’t designed for personal computing and if you think SELinux is the solution you personally need, you might need to reevaluate your threat model (as any external actor will seek to bypass kernel controls entirely e.g. CVE-2025-0078).