realpath(3) et al

[Mike Hoskins]

First, I hope that this message is not considered flame bait.  As someone
who has used FreeBSD for for 5+ years now, I have a genuine interest in
the integrity of our source code.

Second, I hope that this message is not taken as any form of insult or
finger pointing.  Software without bugs does not exist, and I think we all
know that.  Acknowledging that point and working to mitigate the risks
associated with it would seem to be our only real option.

That said, every time something like the recent realpath(3) issue comes
to light, I find myself asking why I haven't at least tried to do more to
review our source code or (more desirable) enable 3rd-party audits.

My question is...  If enabling a 3rd-party audit for some target release
(5.3+ I'd assume) is desirable, what would be needed money-, time- and
other-wise?  I'm willing to invest both time and money to make this
happen.  I'd expect such an endeavor to be tedious and expensive...  and,
of course, it would really need to be repeated occasionally to be of real
value.  (Probably, at least, after major version number changes.)
However, perhaps doing an audit of the base system now would help our
image in the security community?

All I know is, despite occasional arguments and rants, I like FreeBSD.
As long as it exists, I plan to have it installed...  So it is in my best
interest to help in any way I can.  I know projects like secure/trustedBSD
exist, but I am really looking for ways to promote the trust of the base
system more than specialized projects/branches.

Thoughts?

-mrh

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