# How OpenBSD is secure compared to other operating systems?



## Mr_Dragon (Jan 12, 2019)

I read many times OpenBSD is the most secure system and it have a minimal code base which affect to its security. I'm curious how OpenBSD is secure comparing to other operating systems from BSD family (mainly FreeBSD, NetBSD and HardenedBSD) and comparing to any hardened Linux (for example Gentoo, Arch, Slackware, Debian, RHEL etc.). Let's take into account FreeBSD - if we wish containerization, it has jails, if we wish MAC then FreeBSD have its bult-in while in Linux we have a lot of different approaches and solutions - SELinux, RBAC,  Apparmor, Firejail, Docker, LXC etc.
Let's consider two cases:

1. desktop - we assume using this system mainly for day-to-day operations, programming, sysadmin, running pentesting distro in VM etc.,
2. server - a website written in whatever programming language (for example PHP, Python, Ruby), mail server, IRC bouncer, LDAP, VPN etc.

Are default applications in OpenBSD such as OpenNTPd, httpd, OpenSMTPd more secure than tlsdate, nginx, postfix and dovecot?

And the second question - is it true BSD is better in hardening than Linux?


----------



## shepper (Jan 12, 2019)

Recent BSD comparison Presentation


----------



## Crivens (Jan 13, 2019)

This thread is one of those not going anywhere fast, I presume.


----------

