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Date:      Thu, 1 Aug 2002 14:56:40 -0500
From:      "Jacques A. Vidrine" <nectar@FreeBSD.ORG>
To:        Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com>
Cc:        Mikhail Teterin <mi+mx@aldan.algebra.com>, Alexandr Kovalenko <never@nevermind.kiev.ua>, arch@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: OpenSSL vs. -lmd
Message-ID:  <20020801195640.GQ26797@madman.nectar.cc>
In-Reply-To: <3D498FB4.6987B696@mindspring.com>
References:  <200207311641.g6VGfRWj099655@freefall.freebsd.org> <20020801143059.GA536@nevermind.kiev.ua> <200208011151.55478.mi%2Bmx@aldan.algebra.com> <3D498FB4.6987B696@mindspring.com>

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On Thu, Aug 01, 2002 at 12:44:52PM -0700, Terry Lambert wrote:
> Inclusion of OpenSSL in FreeBSD was probably a mistake, since
> it was not brought in on a vendor branch, 

Er, it was.

> and is so mixed up
> in various code that it's hard to keep up with changes for
> security updates.

Updating it required only some very minor build-infrastructure changes
outside of src/crypto/openssl.  I'm not sure what you mean here.

> As a matter of general principle, it seems to me that MD5 and
> friends are unlikely to ever change functionally, 

OK.

> whereas the
> other things that come with the package can change rather
> frequently, since they speak to policy.

I don't understand.

> Consider that it is very hard to use an updated OpenSSL (e.g.
> 0.9.7-Beta or 0.9.6e) with FreeBSD these days.

Hmm, all versions of FreeBSD have OpenSSL 0.9.6e.  I haven't looked
at 0.9.7 personally, but I can't imagine what would prevent one from
using it on FreeBSD.

> Also consider that it's hard to build a project whose code is
> independent of FreeBSD itself, with all these interfaces in
> the base OS by default.

If I grasp what you mean:  Only for lazy programmers who don't
understand the interfaces that they are using. :-)

> My recommendation is to keep the "md" library.  It satisfies
> the "mechanism, not policy" philosophy in a way that OpenSSL
> does not.

I'm not sure how providing duplicate implementations of the digest
functions is useful or desirable.  I'm in no hurry to ditch libmd, but
I do hope to get around to it someday.

Cheers,
-- 
Jacques A. Vidrine <n@nectar.cc>                 http://www.nectar.cc/
NTT/Verio SME          .     FreeBSD UNIX     .       Heimdal Kerberos
jvidrine@verio.net     .  nectar@FreeBSD.org  .          nectar@kth.se

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