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Re: [LUG] Heartbleed is a Free Software win

 

On Thu, 10 Apr 2014 11:10:55 +0100, Tom <madtom1999@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
>On 10/04/14 11:07, Philip Hudson wrote:
>> What Heartbleed means for Free Software -- Sam Tuke's blog
>> https://blogs.fsfe.org/samtuke/?p=718
>>
>Its a point hard to get across-MS has all their own code and some of
>the best software engineers in the world and cant even get VB working
>on ARM let alone know what bugs lie in it.
>Tom te tom te tom
>

I am not so sure that this is a win for open source.

Most of the mainstream articles don't even mention that it is open
source software so the average joe probably just adds it to their "scary
internet" file without caring about the detail.

Those articles that go into detail seem to major on the complexity and
sub-optimal structure of the code that allowed the bug to go
undiscovered for so long.

I am guessing that the best open source code review is done by the
NSA/GCHQ/etc. for their own benefit. The open source model leading to
improved security only works if the good guy code reviewers are better
than the bad guys. Trouble is code review is boring (to most people) so
I fear this is not the case.

Kevin

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