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Re: The New Security Build Infrastructure



Stephen Frost wrote:

> * Scott James Remnant (scott@netsplit.com) wrote:
> > If there's a potential exploit for a server, I want to know about it as
> > soon as the developers do so I can shut down that server until they come
> > up with a fixed version.
> > 
> > Just because there isn't a fixed version yet, does not mean that there
> > isn't a fairly knowledgeable hacker who's managed to exploit it.
> 
> The options go like this:
> a) Get notification early of the problem, get time to fix it and ready a
>    new package.
> b) Don't get notification until it's made public and have to scramble to
>    get a fix in ASAP because the problem is public.
> 
Aye I'm aware of the problem :(  'tis why I just mailed debian-devel my
2p, rather than Cc'ing Florian directly.

> It's pretty simple really.  You're going to find out at the same time
> either way, it's just that in the first case there will be a package
> ready when you find out and in the second case there won't be and you'll
> have to wait for one.
> 
> So, which would you prefer, for there to be a package ready when you
> find out, or for there to not be one?
> 
>From a user point of view, the latter.  I'd rather pull a service down
because of an exploit, and wait for a package than to not know about an
exploit for one of my systems.

>From a debian developer point of view, the former.  I'd rather we knew
about the exploit as early as everyone else so we had the same time to
fix the problem.


So I guess I disagree with their policy, preferring our official one. 
But I agree we probably have to abide by their wish to not officially
disclose the problem in order to correctly serve our users.

Scott
-- 
Scott James Remnant     Have you ever, ever felt like this?  Had strange
http://netsplit.com/      things happen?  Are you going round the twist?

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