Yes, a filesystem is only as secure as the operating system accessing it, but that does not change the fact that the filesystem needs to store proper security descriptors, which ext2/3 can not do AFAIK. It also can't do things like store EAs and named data streams, also, AFAIK. If it can do these things, then maybe we could use it as the filesystem of choice, but otherwise, it is either NTFS, or design a whole new filesystem with all the needed features.
Mike Swanson wrote:
Philip: Any filesystem is plenty insecure if you are accessing it via a bootable CD-ROM or other such measures. Also, ext2 already has a journal, it's called ext3.