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14:
1.425 deraadt 15: <h2>
16: <a href="index.html">
17: <i><font color="#0000ff">Open</font></i><font color="#000084">BSD</font></a>
18: <font color="#e00000">Security</font>
1.427 ! tb 19: </h2>
1.294 david 20: <hr>
1.1 deraadt 21:
1.406 deraadt 22: For security advisories for specific releases, click below:
1.294 david 23: <p>
1.406 deraadt 24:
1.418 tedu 25: <a href="errata21.html">2.1</a>,
26: <a href="errata22.html">2.2</a>,
27: <a href="errata23.html">2.3</a>,
28: <a href="errata24.html">2.4</a>,
29: <a href="errata25.html">2.5</a>,
30: <a href="errata26.html">2.6</a>,
31: <a href="errata27.html">2.7</a>,
32: <a href="errata28.html">2.8</a>,
33: <a href="errata29.html">2.9</a>,
34: <a href="errata30.html">3.0</a>,
35: <a href="errata31.html">3.1</a>,
36: <a href="errata32.html">3.2</a>,
37: <a href="errata33.html">3.3</a>,
38: <a href="errata34.html">3.4</a>,
39: <a href="errata35.html">3.5</a>,
40: <a href="errata36.html">3.6</a>,
1.420 schwarze 41: <a href="errata37.html">3.7</a>,
1.365 deraadt 42: <br>
1.418 tedu 43: <a href="errata38.html">3.8</a>,
44: <a href="errata39.html">3.9</a>,
45: <a href="errata40.html">4.0</a>,
46: <a href="errata41.html">4.1</a>,
47: <a href="errata42.html">4.2</a>,
48: <a href="errata43.html">4.3</a>,
49: <a href="errata44.html">4.4</a>,
50: <a href="errata45.html">4.5</a>,
51: <a href="errata46.html">4.6</a>,
52: <a href="errata47.html">4.7</a>,
53: <a href="errata48.html">4.8</a>,
54: <a href="errata49.html">4.9</a>,
55: <a href="errata50.html">5.0</a>,
56: <a href="errata51.html">5.1</a>,
57: <a href="errata52.html">5.2</a>,
58: <a href="errata53.html">5.3</a>,
1.420 schwarze 59: <a href="errata54.html">5.4</a>,
1.406 deraadt 60: <br>
1.419 jsg 61: <a href="errata55.html">5.5</a>,
1.420 schwarze 62: <a href="errata56.html">5.6</a>,
1.423 benno 63: <a href="errata57.html">5.7</a>,
64: <a href="errata58.html">5.8</a>.
1.426 tb 65: <a href="errata59.html">5.9</a>.
1.406 deraadt 66: <br>
1.56 deraadt 67: <hr>
68:
1.294 david 69: <a name="goals"></a>
1.278 deraadt 70: <ul>
1.406 deraadt 71: <li><h3><font color="#e00000">Goals</font></h3><p>
1.22 deraadt 72:
1.14 deraadt 73: OpenBSD believes in strong security. Our aspiration is to be NUMBER
1.22 deraadt 74: ONE in the industry for security (if we are not already there). Our
75: open software development model permits us to take a more
1.424 tb 76: uncompromising view towards increased security than most vendors are
77: able to. We can make changes the vendors would
1.27 deraadt 78: not make. Also, since OpenBSD is exported with <a href=crypto.html>
1.45 deraadt 79: cryptography</a>, we are able to take cryptographic approaches towards
80: fixing security problems.<p>
1.18 deraadt 81:
1.288 matthieu 82: <a name="disclosure"></a>
1.294 david 83: <li><h3><font color="#e00000">Full Disclosure</font></h3><p>
1.106 deraadt 84:
1.45 deraadt 85: Like many readers of the
1.196 jufi 86: <a href="http://online.securityfocus.com/archive/1">
1.18 deraadt 87: BUGTRAQ mailing list</a>,
1.106 deraadt 88: we believe in full disclosure of security problems. In the
89: operating system arena, we were probably the first to embrace
90: the concept. Many vendors, even of free software, still try
91: to hide issues from their users.<p>
92:
93: Security information moves very fast in cracker circles. On the other
94: hand, our experience is that coding and releasing of proper security
95: fixes typically requires about an hour of work -- very fast fix
96: turnaround is possible. Thus we think that full disclosure helps the
97: people who really care about security.<p>
98:
1.288 matthieu 99: <a name="process"></a>
1.294 david 100: <li><h3><font color="#e00000">Audit Process</font></h3><p>
1.15 deraadt 101:
1.12 deraadt 102: Our security auditing team typically has between six and twelve
1.45 deraadt 103: members who continue to search for and fix new security holes. We
104: have been auditing since the summer of 1996. The process we follow to
105: increase security is simply a comprehensive file-by-file analysis of
1.106 deraadt 106: every critical software component. We are not so much looking for
107: security holes, as we are looking for basic software bugs, and if
1.138 deraadt 108: years later someone discovers the problem used to be a security
1.106 deraadt 109: issue, and we fixed it because it was just a bug, well, all the
110: better. Flaws have been found in just about every area of the system.
111: Entire new classes of security problems have been found during our
112: audit, and often source code which had been audited earlier needs
113: re-auditing with these new flaws in mind. Code often gets audited
114: multiple times, and by multiple people with different auditing
115: skills.<p>
1.12 deraadt 116:
1.94 deraadt 117: Some members of our security auditing team worked for Secure Networks,
118: the company that made the industry's premier network security scanning
119: software package Ballista (Secure Networks got purchased by Network
120: Associates, Ballista got renamed to Cybercop Scanner, and well...)
121: That company did a lot of security research, and thus fit in well
1.106 deraadt 122: with the OpenBSD stance. OpenBSD passed Ballista's tests with flying
123: colours since day 1.<p>
1.31 deraadt 124:
1.34 deraadt 125: Another facet of our security auditing process is its proactiveness.
1.45 deraadt 126: In most cases we have found that the determination of exploitability
127: is not an issue. During our ongoing auditing process we find many
128: bugs, and endeavor to fix them even though exploitability is not
129: proven. We fix the bug, and we move on to find other bugs to fix. We
130: have fixed many simple and obvious careless programming errors in code
131: and only months later discovered that the problems were in fact
132: exploitable. (Or, more likely someone on
1.197 jufi 133: <a href="http://online.securityfocus.com/archive/1">BUGTRAQ</a>
1.45 deraadt 134: would report that other operating systems were vulnerable to a `newly
135: discovered problem', and then it would be discovered that OpenBSD had
136: been fixed in a previous release). In other cases we have been saved
137: from full exploitability of complex step-by-step attacks because we
138: had fixed one of the intermediate steps. An example of where we
1.94 deraadt 139: managed such a success is the lpd advisory that Secure Networks put out.
140: <p>
1.29 deraadt 141:
1.288 matthieu 142: <a name="newtech"></a>
1.294 david 143: <li><h3><font color="#e00000">New Technologies</font></h3><p>
1.278 deraadt 144:
145: As we audit source code, we often invent new ways of solving problems.
146: Sometimes these ideas have been used before in some random application
147: written somewhere, but perhaps not taken to the degree that we do.
148: <p>
149:
150: <ul>
151: <li>strlcpy() and strlcat()
152: <li>Memory protection purify
153: <ul>
154: <li>W^X
155: <li>.rodata segment
156: <li>Guard pages
157: <li>Randomized malloc()
158: <li>Randomized mmap()
159: <li>atexit() and stdio protection
160: </ul>
1.295 otto 161: <li>Privilege separation
1.278 deraadt 162: <li>Privilege revocation
163: <li>Chroot jailing
164: <li>New uids
165: <li>ProPolice
1.424 tb 166: <li>... <a href="/innovations.html">and others</a>
1.278 deraadt 167: </ul>
168: <p>
169:
1.294 david 170: <li><h3><font color="#e00000">The Reward</font></h3><p>
1.106 deraadt 171:
1.45 deraadt 172: Our proactive auditing process has really paid off. Statements like
1.35 deraadt 173: ``This problem was fixed in OpenBSD about 6 months ago'' have become
1.45 deraadt 174: commonplace in security forums like
1.197 jufi 175: <a href="http://online.securityfocus.com/archive/1">BUGTRAQ</a>.<p>
1.35 deraadt 176:
1.45 deraadt 177: The most intense part of our security auditing happened immediately
1.80 espie 178: before the OpenBSD 2.0 release and during the 2.0->2.1 transition,
1.45 deraadt 179: over the last third of 1996 and first half of 1997. Thousands (yes,
180: thousands) of security issues were fixed rapidly over this year-long
181: period; bugs like the standard buffer overflows, protocol
182: implementation weaknesses, information gathering, and filesystem
183: races. Hence most of the security problems that we encountered were
184: fixed before our 2.1 release, and then a far smaller number needed
185: fixing for our 2.2 release. We do not find as many problems anymore,
186: it is simply a case of diminishing returns. Recently the security
187: problems we find and fix tend to be significantly more obscure or
188: complicated. Still we will persist for a number of reasons:<p>
1.36 deraadt 189:
1.35 deraadt 190: <ul>
1.45 deraadt 191: <li>Occasionally we find a simple problem we missed earlier. Doh!
1.35 deraadt 192: <li>Security is like an arms race; the best attackers will continue
1.45 deraadt 193: to search for more complicated exploits, so we will too.
194: <li>Finding and fixing subtle flaws in complicated software is
195: a lot of fun.
1.35 deraadt 196: </ul>
1.106 deraadt 197: <p>
1.15 deraadt 198:
1.14 deraadt 199: The auditing process is not over yet, and as you can see we continue
1.28 deraadt 200: to find and fix new security flaws.<p>
1.12 deraadt 201:
1.288 matthieu 202: <a name="default"></a>
1.294 david 203: <li><h3><font color="#e00000">"Secure by Default"</font></h3><p>
1.106 deraadt 204:
205: To ensure that novice users of OpenBSD do not need to become security
206: experts overnight (a viewpoint which other vendors seem to have), we
207: ship the operating system in a Secure by Default mode. All non-essential
208: services are disabled. As the user/administrator becomes more familiar
209: with the system, he will discover that he has to enable daemons and other
210: parts of the system. During the process of learning how to enable a new
211: service, the novice is more likely to learn of security considerations.<p>
212:
213: This is in stark contrast to the increasing number of systems that
214: ship with NFS, mountd, web servers, and various other services enabled
215: by default, creating instantaneous security problems for their users
216: within minutes after their first install.<p>
217:
1.288 matthieu 218: <a name="crypto"></a>
1.294 david 219: <li><h3><font color="#e00000">Cryptography</font></h3><p>
1.106 deraadt 220:
221: And of course, since the OpenBSD project is based in Canada, it is possible
222: for us to integrate cryptography. For more information, read the page
1.116 deraadt 223: outlining <a href=crypto.html>what we have done with cryptography</a>.</p>
1.106 deraadt 224:
1.294 david 225: <li><h3><font color="#e00000">Advisories</font></h3><p>
1.106 deraadt 226:
1.418 tedu 227: Please refer to the links at the top of this page.
1.106 deraadt 228:
1.288 matthieu 229: <a name="watching"></a>
1.294 david 230: <li><h3><font color="#e00000">Watching our Changes</font></h3><p>
1.106 deraadt 231:
1.21 deraadt 232: Since we take a proactive stance with security, we are continually
233: finding and fixing new security problems. Not all of these problems
1.80 espie 234: get widely reported because (as stated earlier) many of them are not
1.45 deraadt 235: confirmed to be exploitable; many simple bugs we fix do turn out to
236: have security consequences we could not predict. We do not have the
237: time resources to make these changes available in the above format.<p>
1.21 deraadt 238:
239: Thus there are usually minor security fixes in the current source code
240: beyond the previous major OpenBSD release. We make a limited
1.45 deraadt 241: guarantee that these problems are of minimal impact and unproven
1.44 ian 242: exploitability. If we discover that a problem definitely matters for
1.45 deraadt 243: security, patches will show up here <strong>VERY</strong> quickly.<p>
1.21 deraadt 244:
1.45 deraadt 245: People who are really concerned with security can do a number of
246: things:<p>
1.21 deraadt 247:
248: <ul>
249: <li>If you understand security issues, watch our
1.294 david 250: <a href="mail.html">source-changes mailing list</a> and keep an
1.23 deraadt 251: eye out for things which appear security related. Since
1.21 deraadt 252: exploitability is not proven for many of the fixes we make,
253: do not expect the relevant commit message to say "SECURITY FIX!".
254: If a problem is proven and serious, a patch will be available
255: here very shortly after.
1.161 horacio 256: <li>In addition to source changes, you can watch our <a href="mail.html">
1.160 ericj 257: security-announce mailing list</a> which will notify you for every
1.186 ian 258: security related item that the OpenBSD team deems as a possible threat,
1.160 ericj 259: and instruct you on how to patch the problem.
1.21 deraadt 260: <li>Track our current source code tree, and teach yourself how to do a
1.29 deraadt 261: complete system build from time to time (read /usr/src/Makefile
262: carefully). Users can make the assumption that the current
263: source tree always has stronger security than the previous release.
1.45 deraadt 264: However, building your own system from source code is not trivial;
1.424 tb 265: it is over 850MB of source code, and problems do occur as we
1.45 deraadt 266: transition between major releases.
1.115 ericj 267: <li>Install a binary snapshot for your
1.80 espie 268: architecture, which are made available fairly often. For
1.424 tb 269: instance, an amd64 snapshot is typically made available daily.
1.21 deraadt 270: </ul>
271:
1.9 deraadt 272: <p>
1.288 matthieu 273: <a name="reporting"></a>
1.294 david 274: <li><h3><font color="#e00000">Reporting problems</font></h3><p>
1.3 deraadt 275:
1.5 deraadt 276: <p> If you find a new security problem, you can mail it to
1.294 david 277: <a href="mailto:deraadt@openbsd.org">deraadt@openbsd.org</a>.
1.7 deraadt 278: <br>
1.5 deraadt 279: If you wish to PGP encode it (but please only do so if privacy is very
1.112 philen 280: urgent, since it is inconvenient) use this <a href="advisories/pgpkey.txt">pgp key</a>.
1.5 deraadt 281:
1.107 deraadt 282: <p>
1.288 matthieu 283: <a name="papers"></a>
1.294 david 284: <li><h3><font color="#e00000">Further Reading</font></h3><p>
1.107 deraadt 285:
1.389 lum 286: Numerous
1.404 deraadt 287: <a href="papers/index.html">papers</a> have been written by OpenBSD team members,
1.389 lum 288: many dedicated to security.
1.294 david 289: </ul>
1.1 deraadt 290:
1.24 deraadt 291: </body>
292: </html>
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