Live data from Hacker News

OpenSSL, OpenSSH and NTP to receive support from Core Infrastructure Initiative

linuxfoundation.org

1–10 of 94 posts

Re: OpenSSL, OpenSSH and NTP to receive support from Core Infrastructure Initiative

#2
When the missing funding of OpenSSL was discussed, it came up several times, that OpenSSH, while doing great, is quite underfunded, too. I am glad to see them getting some money.

What i can't really comment on myself, but am reading from the OpenBSD guys is, that the OpenSSL team does quite well with FIPS consulting and has no increased interest in improving the library.[0]

Even if those claims are not true, it would be nice to see several other TLS libraries (GnuTLS, LibreSSL etc.) getting sponsored to get some healthy competition. Maybe, they could even directly compete for shares of the funding by the Linux Foundation in some way.

[0]: http://www.openbsd.org/papers/bsdcan14-libressl/mgp00008.htm...

Re: OpenSSL, OpenSSH and NTP to receive support from Core Infrastructure Initiative

#3
Just give the money to the OpenBSD team. We saw with OpenSSH that they have a proven track record taking crappy security software and fixing it. Why does everyone have this aversion to giving the OpenBSD team the funding they deserve?

And "Theo's a dick" doesn't qualify as a valid reason to not fund real security development. For the work those guys have done improving the security infrastructure of every operating system (they lead, others followed), the entire team deserves to be well-off dicks. It's to me the ultimate highlight of OSS's funding problem. People make millions/billions of dollars off of this software, and nobody ever contributes any of that back to the shoulders they stood on to make that happen.

Re: OpenSSL, OpenSSH and NTP to receive support from Core Infrastructure Initiative

#4

When the missing funding of OpenSSL was discussed, it came up several times, that OpenSSH, while doing great, is quite underfunded, too. I am glad to see them getting some money. What i can't really comment on myself, but am reading from the OpenBSD guys is, that the OpenSSL team does quite well with FIPS consulting and has no increased interest in improving the library.[0] Even if those claims are not true, it would…

Just in case someone missed it, here's video of the libressl talk to go with the linked slide(s). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnBbhXBDmwU

Re: OpenSSL, OpenSSH and NTP to receive support from Core Infrastructure Initiative

#6
I'm actually looking forward to seeing how the OpenSSL problem will deal with their own legacy code, compared to how the OpenBSD developers have handled it.

It seems that own of the only ways of dealing with the OpenSSL code is to strip out the code for a large number of, should we say "less used platforms". Is the OpenSSL developers willing to drop support for 16 bit Windows or OpenVMS?

Re: OpenSSL, OpenSSH and NTP to receive support from Core Infrastructure Initiative

#7

Just give the money to the OpenBSD team. We saw with OpenSSH that they have a proven track record taking crappy security software and fixing it. Why does everyone have this aversion to giving the OpenBSD team the funding they deserve? And "Theo's a dick" doesn't qualify as a valid reason to not fund real security development. For the work those guys have done improving the security infrastructure of every operating s…

Personally I think two healthy forks of OpenSSL is far, far better than one. I also think that the OpenBSD team is going to take some time before it reaches it's goals, and more importantly before it's in a stable enough point where people can start working on porting their version to other platforms.

I don't think it makes sense to leave OpenSSL to wither while that happens, especially since it's an actively used product.

That being said I'm far, far more confident in the OpenBSD team than I am the OpenSSL one.

Re: OpenSSL, OpenSSH and NTP to receive support from Core Infrastructure Initiative

#8

Just give the money to the OpenBSD team. We saw with OpenSSH that they have a proven track record taking crappy security software and fixing it. Why does everyone have this aversion to giving the OpenBSD team the funding they deserve? And "Theo's a dick" doesn't qualify as a valid reason to not fund real security development. For the work those guys have done improving the security infrastructure of every operating s…

Actually if I'm giving someone a donation, charity, then whether they are or are not a dick is a perfectly valid part of the decision. And to me how you run a project is as important as the quality of the final result.

Re: OpenSSL, OpenSSH and NTP to receive support from Core Infrastructure Initiative

#9

Just give the money to the OpenBSD team. We saw with OpenSSH that they have a proven track record taking crappy security software and fixing it. Why does everyone have this aversion to giving the OpenBSD team the funding they deserve? And "Theo's a dick" doesn't qualify as a valid reason to not fund real security development. For the work those guys have done improving the security infrastructure of every operating s…

> And "Theo's a dick" doesn't qualify as a valid reason to not fund real security development.

Yeah, but people who give money usually tend to see that as a valid reason.

Re: OpenSSL, OpenSSH and NTP to receive support from Core Infrastructure Initiative

#10

Just give the money to the OpenBSD team. We saw with OpenSSH that they have a proven track record taking crappy security software and fixing it. Why does everyone have this aversion to giving the OpenBSD team the funding they deserve? And "Theo's a dick" doesn't qualify as a valid reason to not fund real security development. For the work those guys have done improving the security infrastructure of every operating s…

That reminds me of TrueCrypt and the TrueCrypt Audit Project.
Post reply on HN