Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 02:10:05 -0700 From: Colin Percival <cperciva@freebsd.org> To: Scott Long <scottl@samsco.org> Cc: Yar Tikhiy <yar@comp.chem.msu.su>, src-committers@FreeBSD.org, cvs-all@FreeBSD.org, cvs-src@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/sys/amd64/amd64 pmap.c src/sys/i386/i386 pmap.c Message-ID: <46306C6D.4080301@freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <4630659E.9040300@samsco.org> References: <200704211417.l3LEHUKK078832@repoman.freebsd.org> <462A27CD.5090006@freebsd.org> <1177170852.32761.0.camel@localhost> <20070424091858.GA31094@comp.chem.msu.su> <462FA0BC.8020207@freebsd.org> <20070426054228.GA53614@comp.chem.msu.su> <463049C6.9080100@samsco.org> <20070426082958.GC53614@comp.chem.msu.su> <4630659E.9040300@samsco.org>
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Scott Long wrote: > Yar Tikhiy wrote: >> [snip] >> It's a good news! But what about explaining the code to the public? >> >> - Mr. Developer, why does it take an ugly hack to make the device work? >> - Can't tell ya, I'm under NDA. > > I think you have to respect that John and Stephan were doing the right > thing with this. This was no different than a security fix that gets > committed before the vulnerability is disclosed. No one seems to get > upset that the security team operates this way. I can only think of one recent case where a security fix was applied without the vulnerability details becoming public within a matter of minutes (i.e., as soon as we could get the advisory signed and uploaded), and that was due to a desire to avoid upstaging my BSDCan talk about hyperthreading (and in that case, all the details became available about 16 hours after patches were committed). That said, I think we have to respect the fact that NDAs, while not ideal, provide limited access to information which would otherwise be entirely unavailable; and in such circumstances I think Yar's suggested response of "Can't tell ya, I'm under NDA" would be perfectly acceptable. Colin Percival
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