Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:42:13 +0100 From: Damien Fleuriot <ml@my.gd> To: John Baldwin <jhb@freebsd.org> Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FLAME - security advisories on the 23rd ? uncool idea is uncool Message-ID: <4EF4AF65.7010404@my.gd> In-Reply-To: <201112231139.26613.jhb@freebsd.org> References: <4EF4A75C.2040609@my.gd> <201112231139.26613.jhb@freebsd.org>
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On 12/23/11 5:39 PM, John Baldwin wrote: > On Friday, December 23, 2011 11:07:56 am Damien Fleuriot wrote: >> Hey up list, >> >> >> >> Look, just a rant here. >> >> >> Who in *HELL* thought it would be a cool idea to release no less than >> FOUR security advisories today ? >> >> I mean, couldn't this have waited and remained undisclosed until monday ? >> >> I for one do *NOT* relish the idea of updating 50+ boxes this evening >> and tomorrow ! >> >> >> Not to mention a whole lot of merchants and banks have toggled IT Freeze >> a few weeks ago, to ensure xmas shopping doesn't get disturbed by >> production changes. >> >> >> Seriously, this is just irritating. > > From an e-mail sent to security@ from the security officer: > > <quote> > Hi all, > > No, the Grinch didn't steal the FreeBSD security officer GPG key, and your eyes > aren't deceiving you: We really did just send out 5 security advisories. > > The timing, to put it bluntly, sucks. We normally aim to release advisories on > Wednesdays in order to maximize the number of system administrators who will be > at work already; and we try very hard to avoid issuing advisories any time close > to holidays for the same reason. The start of the Christmas weekend -- in some > parts of the world it's already Saturday -- is absolutely not when we want to be > releasing security advisories. > > Unfortunately my hand was forced: One of the issues (FreeBSD-SA-11:08.telnetd) > is a remote root vulnerability which is being actively exploited in the wild; > bugs really don't come any worse than this. On the positive side, most people > have moved past telnet and on to SSH by now; but this is still not an issue we > could postpone until a more convenient time. > > While I'm writing, a note to freebsd-update users: FreeBSD-SA-11:07.chroot has a > rather messy fix involving adding a new interface to libc; this has the awkward > side effect of causing the sizes of some "symbols" (aka. functions) in libc to > change, resulting in cascading changes into many binaries. The long list of > updated files is irritating, but isn't a sign that anything in freebsd-update > went wrong. > </quote> > At least they're aware the timing sucks completely and feel as sorry as us. Ty John.
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