cvs commit: src/sys/amd64/amd64 pmap.c src/sys/i386/i386 pmap.c

[Tom Rhodes]

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 02:10:05 -0700
Colin Percival <cperciva at FreeBSD.org> wrote:

> Scott Long wrote:
> > Yar Tikhiy wrote:
> >> [snip]
> >> It's a good news!  But what about explaining the code to the public?
> >>
> >> - Mr. Developer, why does it take an ugly hack to make the device work?
> >> - Can't tell ya, I'm under NDA.
> > 
> > I think you have to respect that John and Stephan were doing the right
> > thing with this.  This was no different than a security fix that gets
> > committed before the vulnerability is disclosed.  No one seems to get
> > upset that the security team operates this way.
> 
> I can only think of one recent case where a security fix was applied without
> the vulnerability details becoming public within a matter of minutes (i.e.,
> as soon as we could get the advisory signed and uploaded), and that was due
> to a desire to avoid upstaging my BSDCan talk about hyperthreading (and in
> that case, all the details became available about 16 hours after patches were
> committed).
> 
> That said, I think we have to respect the fact that NDAs, while not ideal,
> provide limited access to information which would otherwise be entirely
> unavailable; and in such circumstances I think Yar's suggested response of
> "Can't tell ya, I'm under NDA" would be perfectly acceptable.

Oh, opinion time.  My concern isn't with the NDA as long as a
useful commit is made.  I think we should be happy something
is being put into cvs at all.

-- 
Tom Rhodes