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Date:      Mon, 8 Jun 2020 22:14:23 -0500
From:      Valeri Galtsev <galtsev@kicp.uchicago.edu>
To:        "Kevin P. Neal" <kpn@neutralgood.org>
Cc:        Donald Wilde <dwilde1@gmail.com>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: freebsd vs. netbsd
Message-ID:  <6D6C21C3-C164-4652-B8F6-73B900471B97@kicp.uchicago.edu>
In-Reply-To: <20200609024553.GB37422@neutralgood.org>
References:  <171506d5-19aa-359e-c21d-f07257c52ebd@freenetMail.de> <62d10000-e068-922e-23bd-f7a61e7a4e89@anatoli.ws> <ACE27C81-9437-41D6-BBD4-FA7A7B791428@kicp.uchicago.edu> <CAEC7392m%2B_AMfuLn-AgNzfWxgOFY=j_RrLaFFHtxHkeTjaR6%2Bg@mail.gmail.com> <637eed20-1326-dabf-ac9d-fac12a9dbaa5@kicp.uchicago.edu> <70c87d1a-a5d1-60ed-ef75-3a363bfd4c9e@kicp.uchicago.edu> <CAEC7391ym8hQbJie_hyds0NzVTfRV-L%2BaALmDw49GwjgU=T3XQ@mail.gmail.com> <20200609024553.GB37422@neutralgood.org>

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> On Jun 8, 2020, at 9:45 PM, Kevin P. Neal <kpn@neutralgood.org> wrote:
> 
> On Mon, Jun 08, 2020 at 09:29:56AM -0700, Donald Wilde wrote:
>> On 6/8/20, Valeri Galtsev <galtsev@kicp.uchicago.edu> wrote:
>>> Still with utmost respect to OpenBSD for openSSH and general ultimate
>>> security focused approach,
>>> 
>> 
>> I think the fact that the other two root projects (NetBSD and FreeBSD)
>> have included that code says it has all been audited at the highest
>> level by people of equal capability.
> 
> No, auditing isn't required for importing.
> 
> Back around 1994 when OpenBSD started they started talking about how secure
> they were. And then the port for the DEC Alpha stopped booting. When they
> tracked down the bug they found that the OpenBSD guys had been importing
> NetBSD code without looking at it.
> 
> It was something along the lines of (in locore.s):
> #ifdef OPENBSD
>   jmp 0
> #endif
> 
> That's one example, and it's true it was in the mid-90's. It's just an
> example to show my point.
> 
> Importing the openssh code from OpenBSD just means it gets the job done
> and is good enough. I doubt any FreeBSD developer has audited the OpenSSH
> code, the OpenSSL code, the SQLite code, or any of the other medium-sized
> projects that are in the FreeBSD tree now. The exceptions are probably
> projects that were imported once and then developed in-tree afterwards,
> like the IPv6 stack.
> 

Thanks, Kevin. This was really instructive!

Valeri

> -- 
> Kevin P. Neal                                http://www.pobox.com/~kpn/
> 
> "What is mathematics? The age-old answer is, of course, that mathematics
> is what mathematicians do." - Donald Knuth




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