[kwlug-disc] openbsd backdoored by FBI

[Khalid Baheyeldin]

On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 11:20 PM, Insurance Squared Inc. <
gcooke at insurancesquared.com> wrote:

> Or so the claim goes:
>
> http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9201220/Former_contractor_says_FBI_put_back_door_in_OpenBSD
>
> Isn't OpenBSD opensource?  How can someone backdoor OSS?
>

I find this hard to believe. Not only did no one notice in 10 years, but
also
why would the FBI target only OpenBSD, and not the other BSD variants,
or Linux?

http://bsd.slashdot.org/story/10/12/15/004235/FBI-Alleged-To-Have-Backdoored-OpenBSDs-IPSEC-Stack

http://bsd.slashdot.org/story/10/12/15/1524202/BSD-Coder-Denies-Adding-FBI-Backdoor

If you read the above two links, specially the comments, you may come
to the same conclusion as I did: a) this is an allegation, and b) even if it
is true, it is not a true backdoor.

Assuming that it is true, all it does is make the encryption easier to crack

by making the random number generator predictable.

The jury is still out on this one.
-- 
Khalid M. Baheyeldin
2bits.com, Inc.
http://2bits.com
Drupal optimization, development, customization and consulting.
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. --  Edsger W.Dijkstra
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. --   Leonardo da Vinci
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