Security Officer-supported branches update

FreeBSD Security Officer cperciva at freebsd.org
Thu Feb 1 22:20:14 UTC 2007


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Hello Everyone,

The branches supported by the FreeBSD Security Officer have been
updated to reflect recent EoL (end-of-life) events.  The new list is
below and at <URL: http://security.freebsd.org/ >.  FreeBSD 4.11 and
FreeBSD 6.0 have `expired' and are no longer supported effective
February 1, 2007.  Discussions concerning FreeBSD releases which are
no longer supported should take place on the freebsd-eol at freebsd.org
mailing list.

This marks the end of support by the FreeBSD Security Team for the
FreeBSD 4-STABLE branch, two years after FreeBSD 4.11-RELEASE and
almost seven years after FreeBSD 4.0-RELEASE.   For an explanation of
the rationale behind the EoL of FreeBSD 4.11 (and the 4-STABLE branch),
please see my earlier mailing list post on this subject:
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-security/2006-October/004111.html

At this point, support for running software from the ports tree on
FreeBSD 4.x is ceasing:  Packages for binary installations will no
longer be built for FreeBSD 4.11, building ports from source on FreeBSD
4.x will no longer be supported, and the ports INDEX will no longer be
built and made available via portsnap or the 'make fetchindex' target.
Patches for individual ports specific for their functioning on FreeBSD
4.11 may still be accepted at the discretion of the port maintainer.

[Excerpt from http://security.freebsd.org/ follows]

FreeBSD Security Advisories

   The FreeBSD Security Officer provides security advisories for
   several branches of FreeBSD development. These are the -STABLE
   Branches and the Security Branches. (Advisories are not issued for
   the -CURRENT Branch.)

     * There is usually only a single -STABLE branch, although during
       the transition from one major development line to another
       (such as from FreeBSD 5.x to 6.x), there is a time span in
       which there are two -STABLE branches. The -STABLE branch tags
       have names like RELENG_6. The corresponding builds have names
       like FreeBSD 6.1-STABLE.

     * Each FreeBSD Release has an associated Security Branch. The
       Security Branch tags have names like RELENG_6_1. The
       corresponding builds have names like FreeBSD 6.1-RELEASE-p1.

   Isses affecting the FreeBSD Ports Collection are covered in the
   FreeBSD VuXML document.

   Each branch is supported by the Security Officer for a limited
   time only, and is designated as one of `Early adopter', `Normal',
   or `Extended'.  The designation is used as a guideline for
   determining the lifetime of the branch as follows.

   Early adopter
       Releases which are published from the -CURRENT branch will be
       supported by the Security Officer for a minimum of 6 months
       after the release.

   Normal
       Releases which are published from a -STABLE branch will be
       supported by the Security Officer for a minimum of 12 months
       after the release.

   Extended
       Selected releases will be supported by the Security Officer
       for a minimum of 24 months after the release.

   The current designation and estimated lifetimes of the currently
   supported branches are given below.  The Estimated EoL (end-of-life)
   column gives the earliest date on which that branch is likely to be
   dropped.  Please note that these dates may be extended into the
   future, but only extenuating circumstances would lead to a branch's
   support being dropped earlier than the date listed.

   +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
   |  Branch   |  Release   |  Type  |  Release date  |  Estimated EoL  |
   |-----------+------------+--------+----------------+-----------------|
   |RELENG_5   |n/a         |n/a     |n/a             |May 31, 2008     |
   |-----------+------------+--------+----------------+-----------------|
   |RELENG_5_5 |5.5-RELEASE |Extended|May 25, 2006    |May 31, 2008     |
   |-----------+------------+--------+----------------+-----------------|
   |RELENG_6   |n/a         |n/a     |n/a             |last release + 2y|
   |-----------+------------+--------+----------------+-----------------|
   |RELENG_6_1 |6.1-RELEASE |Extended|May 9, 2006     |May 31, 2008     |
   |-----------+------------+--------+----------------+-----------------|
   |RELENG_6_2 |6.2-RELEASE |Normal  |January 15, 2007|January 31, 2008 |
   +--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[End excerpt]

Colin Percival
FreeBSD Security Officer
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (FreeBSD)

iD8DBQFFwmbSFdaIBMps37IRAgR4AJ9zXOq0HWZoi4s0WnLTmNid6E0PQwCfSrdZ
YjuUnWhcU6W2NzW5jpFzWBQ=
=YQgc
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----


More information about the freebsd-security mailing list