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Date:      Fri, 14 Jul 2000 10:53:32 -0500 (CDT)
From:      Marc Rassbach <marc@milestonerdl.com>
To:        Paul Robinson <wigstah@akitanet.co.uk>
Cc:        Neil Blakey-Milner <nbm@mithrandr.moria.org>, David Pick <D.M.Pick@qmw.ac.uk>, Warner Losh <imp@village.org>, security@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Displacement of Blame[tm]
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.21.0007140851370.31439-100000@tandem.milestonerdl.com>
In-Reply-To: <00071411574600.46406@foo.akitanet.co.uk>

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On Fri, 14 Jul 2000, Paul Robinson wrote:

> <rant>
> Anybody who just does cd /usr/ports/<area>/<package> and then types 'make;
> make install' deserves to be r00ted in 5 minutes anyway. 

This is a rather poor attitude.  The less sites the script kiddies have 
to launch thier attacks from, the harder it will be for the kids to
hide.  It is in ALL of our interests to have hosts secure. 

And doesn't
comment well on how you think
the ports of FreeBSD is done.  Ports and the job done there is part of
what makes FreeBSD as nice as it is.  

ANY system 'set up and forgotten' is subject to attack and eventually will
fail.  The white hats only have to screw up once.  The black hats get to
try over and over again.  

But to blame ports for making FreeBSD 'less secure', it sounds like you
should then be looking at OpenBSD.  A nice minimalist system, lacking the
richness of FreeBSD.


> What I would propose is this - why don't we have 2 lists - one for
> freebsd-security where genuine issues with security in the core FreeBSD
> distro are discussed, and another (freebsd-ports-security for example) where
> announcments on ports shipped with FreeBSD are announced.

Nothing stopping you, Brett or someone else making a second list.

This whole idea came up a few months ago, and the same suggestion 
was made for a different list to serve this need.  

If you feel the present list doesn't do the job, start your own version
that you feel *DOES* do the job.  And, if it *IS* is a better list
(better==more popular) one of two things will happen:
1) you will get the job of managing the security list.
2) your ideas will be taken, and used to manage the security list. 

Taking the action of creating a new list controlled by the people who want
change, doen on their serveres, done there way,  would address the
concerns the people who want change have.  
And, like the history of UNIX itself, if the new list has the better idea,
it will float to the top.








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