*Throwing admin hat aside and jumping up and down on it for duration*
[Shifting to LIG. Please post responses only to LIG]
Dear Arvind,
>>>>> "Arvind" == rarvind <Arvind> writes:
Arvind> [snip]
Arvind> In fact, even if the source is know, how many admins are
Arvind> competent enough to make changes to the code and
Arvind> re-compile ? Even a full fledged developer will takes lots
Arvind> of time to understand another man's code before attempting
Arvind> to make changes.
Why do you keep trolling on the list? Where did you read that the
advantage of open-source security is that it enables each admin to fix
each and every bug him/herself? I'm interested in seeing that
article.
The advantages of security in free software/OSS are:
- Open audit. Most security experts agree that open technologies are
better security-wise than closed technologies, purely because they are
subject to peer review, a critical part of establishing the security
of any system.
- Code reuse. Even without the advantage of peer review, it's
possible for interested parties to get hold of, evaluate and use
specific parts of a free software system for their own purposes. The
individual parts (e.g. the Blowfish implementation in OpenSSL) may
yield inconsistencies or vulnerabilities when being examined or
manipulated for another use.
- Multi-point fix. Anyone who understands a free software system is
free to make fixes to it. Just because you (or any putative sysadmin)
don't know how to fix a piece of software doesn't mean that everyone
in the world is in the same position. You may be able to fix system
X, I may be able to fix system Y, neither of which we have developed
ourselves. In a closed-source scenario this is not possible: only the
developer of the software, who presumably is the only one with access
to the source code, can make and release fixes.
Let's play a game, shall we? We'll call it `switch off brain before
pressing "Send"'. The first person to win, loses.
Regards,
-- Raju
--
Raju Mathur [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://kandalaya.org/
It is the mind that moves
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