This is actually a very good essay. It is not an attack on open source, not a jeremiad, and it was written by someone who has been reporting on the phenomenon pretty much since it started. Rather, it is a call to attention.
Why, given open source's vaunted transparency to flaws and supposedly eager communities, did this serious flaw go so long unnoticed? Vaughan-Nichols:
I think I know why and I can sum it up with one phrase: "Magical Thinking." We think that because open source code can be more secure, it is more real secure. Wrong!
Everyone just assumed that OpenSSL must be perfectly safe because, well OpenSSL has a reputation for being safe, therefore it was safe. Developers, website developers, security experts, one and all, it seems no one ever thought to actually use those eyeballs that successful open source relies upon to check the code to see if it really was safe.
We were idiots.
We thought that because OpenSSL was open source that everyone was actually using open source methodology to make sure its code was correct. In reality, no one, after that initial approval years ago, ever bothered to check up to see if the code was both right and secure.
The open source method remains as good as ever when used correctly. When it's not, when we simply assume that all the t's have been crossed and the i's dotted, then we're relying upon faith and not testing and that's doesn't work for any program.
No comments:
Post a Comment