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Date:      Sun, 18 Nov 2012 00:59:54 -0500
From:      grarpamp <grarpamp@gmail.com>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Cc:        freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, freebsd-hubs@freebsd.org, freebsd-security@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: FreeBSD needs Git to ensure repo integrity [was: 2012 incident]
Message-ID:  <CAD2Ti28Ha323x4=5OPafh2UCsmQDqn-5ZN4mNs=CwRSVpAkLgQ@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAJ-VmonryjAOW-Ty%2Bs3wj6BfWiQzxSL-waEYnQ5wLv4eFjQ_4Q@mail.gmail.com>
References:  <CAD2Ti29UoFcHendR8CcdQ4FPNW1HH0O47B1i3JW00Lke2m2POg@mail.gmail.com> <CAJ-VmonryjAOW-Ty%2Bs3wj6BfWiQzxSL-waEYnQ5wLv4eFjQ_4Q@mail.gmail.com>

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>> joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de
> You don't even have a name

Your domain indicates Germany, please have a chat with CCC.de about
the various good uses for nyms. And consult your library for some
fine historical use cases. If that's counter to your beliefs, you
are free to show us the way and post all your personal infos to the
list.

> spamming a large number of FreeBSD mailinglists with your advocacy?

This topic would benefit from the review and involvement of users
(questions), committers (hackers), security (security), and
distribution (hubs).

> --
> Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-)

As well summarized by this (your signature) ... sources you can't
verify to the master are, also, sources you can't trust.


>> fidaj@ukr.net
> LOL And how will this help Linux?
> http://lwn.net/Articles/457142/

How will what help Linux? Please quote a relevant snippet instead
of the entire message.

Seems pretty clear from the above link that having hashes/crypto
as an intrinsic feature of the SCM tool does in fact help Linux.

If you're asking about distribution of things traceable back to the
master repo, at least your security officer can sign the initial
repository commit and then include the various distribution keys
and subsequent updates, signed tags, etc in the repo.


>> utisoft@gmail.com
> Yes, but git doesn't work with our workflow.

There's usually a larger than head sized sandbox near everyone's
local neighborhood. Will people elect to visit it, or to learn,
grow, and change for the better? Prioe workflow is often forced by
and derived from the tools being used. Different tools could enable
different, more useful workflows. SVN required workflow change from
CVS, people managed just fine.

> It's been discussed several times

I will look for these. Can you point to a couple main threads?

> [git] ... is GPL btw

FreeBSD does not include this sort-of-BSD licensed SCM tool in its
base either...

# https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/subversion/trunk/LICENSE
# ls /*bin/svn /usr/*bin/svn
ls: No such file or directory

But it does include this GPL licensed one...

# http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/cvs/ccvs/COPYING?revision=HEAD
# ls /*bin/cvs /usr/*bin/cvs'
/usr/bin/cvs

And of course we have this in use as well...

# perforce
http://www.perforce.com/purchase/pricing-licensing

So it seems license is not an obstacle to inclusion, and certainly
not the use via ports, of any particular SCM with the FreeBSD
project.


>> rsimmons0@gmail.com
> https://github.com/freebsd/

>> adrian@freebsd.org
> You can look at what goes into the FreeBSD Git clone to get your
> assurance that things aren't being snuck in.

The same could be said for the CVS clone. Again...
Any copy of something that is itself not verifiable provides no
such assurance.

> Those who want to use git can use it, right now. Honest.

Yes, Git does seem to me to be leading the other distributed, hash
based, SCM tools such as Hg. Thus Git is suggested. Yes, Git would
fill the purpose. I only suggest Git, as to some other choices that
use hashes (as usual, please verify with current releases)...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_revision_control_software

But this is not really about using Git in particular...


These replies are all dodging around the base issue raised...
- That FreeBSD has no verifiable source repo
- Which is not only a problem for the repo itself, but for everything
attempted to be spawned downstream off of that root (no verifiable
distribution system/tools distributing that repo, etc).

Sorry to reply to these sorts of replies this way, but please, this
isn't a troll or a shed. No need to do that around the issue raised.
Hash [ :-) ] it out and solve it. Why wait for a costlier breach?
Why not provide the assurance beforehand? No better time than now.


>> gmx@ross.cx
> http://www.linux.com/news/featured-blogs/171-jonathan-corbet/491001-the-cracking-of-kernelorg

Yes, another good link outlining the issue.



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