Full Disclosure: Re: [Full-disclosure] [Dailydave] Linux's unofficial security-through-coverup policy

["Elazar Broad" <elazar () hushmail com>]

Sorry if I was not clear enough, I meant in the commit comments. I 
agree, you need about a brain and a half to spot kernel bugs in the 
code itself...

On Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:58:03 -0400 Paul Schmehl 
<pschmehl_lists () tx rr com> wrote:
> --On Thursday, July 17, 2008 10:35:21 -0400 Elazar Broad 
> <elazar () hushmail com> 
> wrote:
>
> > I could understand why Linus is against classifying a commit
> > comment in his branch or in a any unstable branch for that
> > matter...then again, the repositories are open, and anyone with
> > half a brain might be able to discern what has security
> > ramifications or not.
> Apparently this isn't as true as you'd like to think.  If it were, 
> the folks 
> who write the code would have caught it to begin with.  After all, 
> anyone who 
> can write kernel code that works has *at least* half a brain, 
> wouldn't you say?
>
> The truth is, there is a very small pool of people smart enough, 
> educated 
> enough and familiar with the code in question enough to actually 
> spot security 
> problems in the code.  Those folks are worth their weight in gold, 
> but in many 
> cases they do it for the pure pleasure of finding the bugs.  They 
> also only 
> focus on those things that interest them, so the number of people 
> actually 
> looking for security issues in the LInux kernel code is 
> infinitesimally small 
> compared to the number of people who use the compiled product.
>
> Claiming that "anyone with half a brain" can spot security 
> problems in code 
> belittles both those who actually can and all those who cannot but 
> want to be 
> informed about them so they can protect themselves.
>
> -- 
> Paul Schmehl
> As if it wasn't already obvious,
> my opinions are my own and not
> those of my employer.
>
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