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OpenSSL Audit

cryptoservices.github.io

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Re: OpenSSL Audit

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We only have to look at all the patches for java to see that it hasn't been secure. All those big security issues aren't in the Java language, they are in the JVM running untrusted Java byte code. Not to say that situation isn't bad, but you can't compare it to C++ because nobody ever thought running untrusted C++ code without some other sandboxing was a good idea. That aside, memory safety is great for security. O…

> Not to say that situation isn't bad, but you can't compare it to C++ because nobody ever thought running untrusted C++ code without some other sandboxing was a good idea. This is actually kind of a point for the other side. You can sandbox code regardless of what language it's written in. Maybe what we need is not better languages but better sandboxes. Even when code is "trusted", if the developer knows it doesn't…

But sandboxing does nothing to protect information if the information resides in the sandbox (sandboxing wouldn't have stopped heartbleed).

Rust and friends would aren't going to make all securty issues go away, just as sandboxing would not. There is no one true silver bullet in securty, at least not yet.

Re: OpenSSL Audit

#82
post #74
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't guarantee that code path never gets executed. For a good historical example, Windows NT4 also came with inbuilt OS/2 and POSIX subsystems that were never used by users, but typically used by people on the internet to crack boxes.

While I haven't look at the OS/2 support of OpensSSL specifically, surely it is not a question about code that it never executed, but code that is never built on a modern system. That makes it more a question about code maintainability and code readability, rather than security problems with seldom executed code.

Much of the code you don't think was ever built on a modern system was being built. Either because they enabled the workaround everywhere on purpose, or because the preprocessor test was borked and the modern code never enabled.
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