Zero Trust for Linux Admins with Open-Source IAM

Talk by Thomas Cameron https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/23x/presentations/zero-trust-linux-admins-open-source-iam Zero Trust isn’t a product, it’s a design approach. And Linux admins already have everything they need to build a Zero Trust environment using entirely open-source tools. In this session, we’ll walk through practical, upstream-friendly ways to modernize access control without buying anything new. We’ll cover centralized identity using FreeIPA/SSSD, SSH certificate authorities to eliminate long-lived keys, group-based sudo rules, host-based access control, network segmentation, and how SELinux fits into a Zero Trust model. You’ll leave with concrete, copy-and-paste examples and a clear roadmap for making your Linux fleet more secure, more manageable, and far less dependent on “trusting the network.” This is Zero Trust for real-world sysadmins - practical, deployable, and 100% open source.