Your router/switch may be less secure than you think
Michael.Dillon at btradianz.com
Michael.Dillon at btradianz.com
Wed Aug 3 14:48:27 UTC 2005
> > We should all be looking to the security auditing work done by
> > the OpenBSD team for an example of how systems can be
> > cleaned up, fixed, and locked down if there is a will to do so.
>
> Beer, unsupported assertions, and lack of rigorous audit methodology
> can be blended together to make one's code more secure?
Perhaps you aren't aware of what the OpenBSD team accomplished?
Their techniques may not be rigorously documented but they
have been used in other projects:
http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~angelos/Papers/posse-chapter.pdf
ABSTRACT
This chapter reports on our experiences with POSSE, a project
studying ?Portable Open Source Security Elements? as part of the
larger DARPA effort on Composable High Assurance Trusted Systems.
We describe the organization created to manage POSSE and the
significant acceleration in producing widely used secure software
that has resulted. ...
The OpenBSD team provide a brief overview of their process here:
http://www.openbsd.org/security.html
And a security consulting company describes the lessons of
OpenBSD here:
http://www.openlysecure.org/openbsd/security/sec_lessons
Their process has some parallels in the activities of groups like
the Columbia Accident Inquiry Board and the 911 Commission.
Openness, rigourous examination, attention to detail...
--Michael Dillon
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