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Commentary: These looking for a single trigger for the Log4j vulnerability – whether or not it is open supply just isn’t safe, or open supply just isn’t sustainable – are getting it improper. It is a difficult problem.
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Excuse me if I do not wish to hear your “sizzling take” on the Log4j vulnerability. By all means, give me the small print of what occurred, in addition to the way it’s impacting corporations like mine. Even higher, give me perception into how I can take a look at my servers to see if I am secure. Simply do not blare headlines like “Open supply may be [an] open door for hackers,” because the Monetary Occasions did. And do not use the issue to begin banging the drum of “open supply sustainability” crises. Open supply is not a safety drawback, and open supply sustainability is an advanced problem. As a substitute, it is time to acknowledge, as Matt Klein, founder and maintainer of the Envoy open supply venture, has finished, that “All we are able to do is settle for the fact of bugs/outages, do the perfect that we are able to to mitigate, be taught, and enhance, and look ahead to the following one.” SEE: Patch administration coverage (TechRepublic Premium) Making safety a course of I do know, I do know! That does not make for thrilling studying. There is no smoking gun. No intern in charge. It is simply…software program. And software program breaks, is buggy, and so forth.
As Klein pressured, I’ve averted a sizzling tackle the log4j scenario as a result of frankly I am bored with tech sizzling takes. Nonetheless, my not sizzling take sizzling take is that bugs occur, a few of them very unhealthy, and so they happen for a set of complicated causes. Complaining in regards to the villain of the day ([open source] funding, reminiscence security, and so forth.) is a pink herring, and over-focusing on one trigger results in no actual enchancment. We’re all human and juggling a mountain of constraints; it is a miracle that tech works 1% in addition to it does.” However…what about the truth that apparently the Log4j maintainers might not be paid to do this work? Which will or might not be true, nevertheless it’s additionally considerably immaterial, as Pink Hat’s Andrew Clay Shafer argued: “[P]aying [open source] maintainers absolutely aggressive software program salaries would have a negligible impression on stopping log4j like safety points.” On its face this sounds improper, however think about his follow-up: “[H]ow a lot cash have banks spent on ‘safety’ since 2013? [W]hile working log4j in prod the entire time? [H]ow many undiscovered exploits are in prod at your financial institution proper now?” He has some extent. An excellent one. Even probably the most absolutely funded software program has bugs, safety holes, and so forth. We are able to completely do higher, however no software program – open supply or proprietary – is immune from flaws. Positive, it’d make the maintainers really feel higher to be paid whereas they’re yelled at to “FIX THIS NOW!” however there are some (like Beka Valentine) who would argue that lowering all open supply sustainability to a query of cash unwittingly takes away a few of its best power: developer ardour. SEE: NIST Cybersecurity Framework: A cheat sheet for professionals (free PDF) (TechRepublic) Certainly, on this level, Ruby on Rails founder David Heinemeier Hansson declared that “I will not allow you to pay me for my open supply.” Why? “Open supply, as seen via the altruistic lens of the MIT reward license, has the facility to interrupt us free from this overly rational cost-benefit evaluation bulls— that is impoverishing our lives in so many different methods.” In different phrases, he needs individuals to contribute if it provides them pleasure, and he does not wish to really feel beholden to do something with the venture that does not additionally carry him happiness. Introducing cash makes open supply widespread, in his view. No matter whether or not you agree, and coming again to Shafer’s level, we can’t magically rid Log4j or any open supply (or proprietary) software program of bugs just by throwing cash at them. That is not the magic of open supply. No, safety is a course of in open supply, not one thing you get by licensing code beneath an open supply license. I tweeted in December 2020: “Not that open supply is inherently safer, however fairly it is an inherently higher course of for securing code.” By all means, let’s guarantee open supply contributors are paid (or not, following the reasoning of DHH and Valentine), however let’s not have a good time our foolish sizzling takes that attempt to scale back the Log4j drawback to 1 factor. Safety is difficult. Software program is difficult. However open supply, by making the software program and surrounding processes permeable, accessible, improves safety (or can), fairly than degrading it. Disclosure: I work for MongoDB, however the views expressed herein are mine.
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