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Date:      Thu, 23 Apr 1998 11:59:07 -0400 (EDT)
From:      woods@zeus.leitch.com (Greg A. Woods)
To:        freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Static vs. dynamic linking
Message-ID:  <199804231559.LAA09646@brain.zeus.leitch.com>
In-Reply-To: Peter Jeremy's message of "Thu, April 23, 1998 13:45:19 %2B1000" regarding "Re: Static vs. dynamic linking" id <199804230345.NAA20055@gsms01.alcatel.com.au>
References:  <199804230345.NAA20055@gsms01.alcatel.com.au>

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[ On Thu, April 23, 1998 at 13:45:19 (+1000), Peter Jeremy wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: Static vs. dynamic linking
>
> - Fixing bugs in libraries is much easier - just replace a single
>   libc.so and the bug is fixed in all the programs that use it.  This
>   mightn't be much of an issue for the hackers amongst us (who
>   regularly rebuild their entire systems), but will be an issue
>   as we try to expand our user base to less knowledgable people
>   (and people who don't want to have to do a `make world' every
>   time a CERT advisory comes out).

That's definitely not as big a benefit as many people think it is,
esp. in an "open source" system where it's relativley easy to re-build
the whole world with all relevant fixes.

The CM complexity issues of trying to fix more than one bug in a given
library while still maintaining backwards compatability are often
insurmountable.

> - Run-time control (and extendability) of configuration.  Examples
>   are Sun's name service switch and volume management, as well as
>   the idea of plug-in authentication modules for login (where this
>   thread started).

"Security" and "plug-in" don't go together very well.

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

+1 416 443-1734      VE3TCP      <gwoods@acm.org>      <robohack!woods>
Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>; Secrets of the Weird <woods@weird.com>

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