From owner-freebsd-security Thu Jul 23 21:37:33 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id VAA11957 for freebsd-security-outgoing; Thu, 23 Jul 1998 21:37:33 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from adam.adonai.net (adam.adonai.net [207.8.83.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id VAA11913 for ; Thu, 23 Jul 1998 21:37:21 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from leec@adam.adonai.net) Received: from localhost (leec@localhost) by adam.adonai.net (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id XAA09900; Thu, 23 Jul 1998 23:36:47 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from leec@adam.adonai.net) Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 23:36:47 -0500 (CDT) From: "Lee Crites (ASC)" To: Brett Glass cc: Andrew Kenneth Milton , security@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Translation to a safer language (Was: Projects to improve security) In-Reply-To: <199807221459.IAA04129@lariat.lariat.org> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Wed, 22 Jul 1998, Brett Glass wrote: =>>The only way to prevent bad code is to audit and test. => =>It'd be nice if even *that* worked. I've developed a renewed interest =>in mechanical verification. There is this guy named Michael Fagan who is going about teaching what he calls Fagan Inspections. It sounds okay on the surface, but there is nothing magical about it. Faganized code *should* have fewer defects in it -- any code you and three friends spend 40% of your time inspecting had darn well better have fewer defects! Actually, I said that backwards -- 40% of your coding man hours will be in inspections. If you had a 60 man hour project, then it would be 100 man hours including the inspections. There are a lot of stats showing a real defect reduction by Faganizing your code (and documents -- they both work). Motorola, for instance, swears by them. (...we are still at the stage of swearing *at* them...) It *is* possible for an inspection process to work. It just takes more time, effort, and discipline than most organizations can handle. Lee =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Lee Crites Adonai Services Company, Round Rock, Texas leec@adonai.net http://www.adonai.net/~leec =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe security" in the body of the message