reporter on deadline seeks comment about reported security bug in FreeBSD

[Jerry]

On Tue, 15 Sep 2009 07:18:26 -0400
Bill Moran <wmoran at potentialtech.com> wrote:

> Mel Flynn <mel.flynn+fbsd.questions at mailing.thruhere.net> wrote:
> >
> > On Monday 14 September 2009 23:46:42 David Kelly wrote:
> > > On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 05:13:54PM -0400, illoai at gmail.com wrote:
> > > > Am 2009/9/14 Dan Goodin <dgoodin at sitpub.com> writhed:
> > > > > Hello,
> > > > >
> > > > > Dan Goodin, a reporter at technology news website The
> > > > > Register. Security researcher Przemyslaw Frasunek says
> > > > > versions 6.x through 6.4 of FreeBSD has a security bug. He
> > > > > says he notified the FreeBSD Foundation on August 29 and
> > > > > never got a response. We'll be writing a brief article about
> > > > > this. Please let me know ASAP if someone cares to comment.
> > > >
> > > > Has anyone submitted a PR about this?
> > > 
> > > Przemyslaw Frasunek has PR's posted but none recent. IMO if a PR
> > > is not submitted then one has *not* informed the Powers That Be.
> > 
> > Wrong. Security bugs should be reported to the security team, not
> > PR'd.
> 
> It's typical for security issues to be kept hushed until a fix is
> ready. As a result, there are usually no PRs, and in the case where
> the person who discovered the problem is amenable, there is no public
> discussion at all until a fix is available.
> 
> Apparently, Mr. Frasunek started out down that path, which is
> admirable. It seems as if he doesn't have much patience, however,
> since he thinks that only 2 weeks is enough time to fix a security
> problem and QA the fix.

I usually discover security problems with updates I receive from
<http://www.us-cert.gov/>. Aren't FreeBSD security problems reported to
their site? If not, why? IMHO, keeping users in the dark to known
security problems is not a serviceable protocol.

-- 
Jerry
gesbbb at yahoo.com

If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that
will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.