[iwar] [fc:U.S..Funds.Open.Source.Security.Hub]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-02-07 07:09:35

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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2002 07:09:35 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:U.S..Funds.Open.Source.Security.Hub]
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U.S. Funds Open Source Security Hub: A new approach to open source
security auditing, funded by the U.S. Defense Department, offers
recognition to geeks who examine code.

By Kevin Poulsen, Security Focus, 2/5/02
<a href="http://www.securityfocus.com/news/322">http://www.securityfocus.com/news/322>

Conventional wisdom has long held that open source software garners
extra security from the sheer number of people who are free to review
the code -- "Many eyes make all bugs shallow," the adage goes. The
reality is often different; it turns out many of those eyes have little
interest in the thankless task of examining other people's code for
security holes.

But now the "many eyes" school of software security may become more than
a theory, thanks to a reward system devised by a Oregon-based computer
scientist and funded by the U.S. Defense Department, which was announced
over security mailing lists Tuesday.

Part software development system and part psychological gambit, the
Sardonix project would replace the current loosely-structured open
source security review process with a central Web site that tracks which
code has been audited for security holes, and by whom. An automated
reward loop grants points to volunteer auditors according to the amount
of code they've examined, and the number of security holes they've
found. Auditors lose points if a subsequent audit by someone else turns
up bugs they missed.

There's no prize for being a top security auditor, but none is
necessary, according to the project's conceiver. "We are harnessing the
open source community's instinctive skepticism and need for
recognition," says Crispin Cowan, chief research scientist of WireX
Communications. "You can be mechanically rated as more elite than the
next guy by spotting more bugs in code."

Cowan is turning to the community to construct the exact rating system,
which he hopes will produce the same cocktail of goodwill and
computer-judged competition that fuels other successful geeky endeavors,
from the distributed computing effort that recognizes top producers in
the search for new prime numbers, to the "karma" points awarded
highly-rated posters on the news-for-nerds site Slashdot.

Source code will win points as well, with which open source users can
judge how safe a particular piece of software might be. A given chunk of
code will be automatically rated according to the cumulative score of
every person who has audited it, i.e., the overall level of experience
and skill that's been brought to bear on the software.

"Open source enables many eyes, but does not assure it," says Cowan. "So
lots and lots of code goes unread. Sardonix gives you a way to find out
what eyes are on the code."

Sardonix -- named, Cowan says, for the sardonic attitude the tech
community holds towards security claims -- is funded for two years under
a grant awarded last July by the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA), which is increasingly supporting open source security
research as the Pentagon becomes more reliant on open source software.
After that, Cowan hopes to have enough corporate sponsorship to continue
the project.

The proposal was well received by Linux security experts Tuesday. "I
love the idea in principal," says Jay Beale, founder of JJB Security
Consulting. "The primary strength is we'll know what is being looked at,
and what isn't... And people will go to the stuff that hasn't been
looked at in an effort to build their karma, and build their name."

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