full-disclosure - Re: Allegations regarding OpenBSD IPSEC

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Message-Id: <4E0B8A34-AAC3-44E0-A697-843A6D564B91@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2010 10:55:39 -0800
From: bk <chort0@...il.com>
To: Paul Schmehl <pschmehl_lists@...rr.com>
Cc: full-disclosure@...ts.grok.org.uk
Subject: Re: Allegations regarding OpenBSD IPSEC

On Dec 15, 2010, at 10:32 AM, Paul Schmehl wrote:

> --On December 14, 2010 8:40:14 PM -0500 bugs@....dhs.org wrote:
>> 
>> http://www.downspout.org/?q=node/3
>> 
>> Seems IPSEC might have a back door written into it by the FBI?
>> 
> 
> So for 10 years IPSEC has had a backdoor in it and not one person examining 
> the code has noticed it? <snip>
> 
> Read The Cathedral and The Bazaar.
> 
> -- 
> Paul Schmehl, Senior Infosec Analyst

I call bullshit on all the people claiming this couldn't possibly have existed because "anyone can read the source."  How many of you understand crypto.  OK, now how many of you _actually_ understand crypto?  And of those, how many look at *BSD?

There have been plenty of recent examples of Open Source projects that have had undetected security flaws for multiple years.  It's not difficult to believe a relatively uncommon OS could have a subtle weakness in a difficult-to-understand part of the code.

In this particular case, it looks to be total FUD by some lunatic with an axe to grind, but we shouldn't be so arrogant to assume that such a flaw _could not_ exist.

BTW I actually use OpenBSD on many of my systems and I happen to think it's a very simple and practical OS, but I'm not blind to potential problems.

--
chort
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