On managing Linux kernel development

The Linux kernel is one of the largest collaborative software projects in the history of the world and has almost nothing in the way of formalized management structure. We have people who have a strong operating systems background who have been contributing code, and then we have people like me. I have a background in fruit fly genetics and yet someone lets me get close to the Linux kernel; this seems wrong. And then we have people who are genuinely kids in their bedroom. It’s a miracle it works as well as it does. We should be astonished that we’re able to get it so right so much of the time.

Matthew Garrett

The Heartbleed Bug

heartbleed

If you haven’t heard about The Heartbleed Bug yet, here is your chance.  This page describes it nicely in not too technical detail.  Let’s get a few quotes to get you started:

The Heartbleed Bug is a serious vulnerability in the popular OpenSSL cryptographic software library. This weakness allows stealing the information protected, under normal conditions, by the SSL/TLS encryption used to secure the Internet. SSL/TLS provides communication security and privacy over the Internet for applications such as web, email, instant messaging (IM) and some virtual private networks (VPNs).

The Heartbleed bug allows anyone on the Internet to read the memory of the systems protected by the vulnerable versions of the OpenSSL software. This compromises the secret keys used to identify the service providers and to encrypt the traffic, the names and passwords of the users and the actual content. This allows attackers to eavesdrop on communications, steal data directly from the services and users and to impersonate services and users.

That doesn’t just sound nasty.  IT IS!

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