Re: Code Red is Not The Problem

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

Forwarded by: Darren Reed <darrenr () reed wattle id au>

In some email I received from InfoSec News, sie wrote:

[...]

> But even with this latest major Internet security problem,
> Corporate America and the government still don't get it, and
> probably never will.

[...]

> The most significant danger and vulnerability facing the Wired
> World is continuing to accept and standardize corporate and
> consumer computer environments on technology that's proven time
> and again to be insecure, unstable, and full of undocumented bugs
> ("features") that routinely place the Internet community at risk.
> But nobody wants to talk about that - not the government, not
> CERT, not many security vendors, or most of the mainstream media.
> Such analysis, although true, runs contrary to the status quo and
> the industry-favoring 'party line' groupthink leading to increased
> profits for everyone.

[...]

How about making providing software, with security bugs, for
commercial use a felony or something that no disclaimer can waive
responsibility for ? Maybe it should be a felony to release any
software package with any known bugs or in doing so a software
manufacturer voids any claim to hiding behind a disclaimer.

What about going a step further and including deploying software with
security bugs a felony, that way making system admins take more care
in the software they install.

I would not care if warranties that said "no buffer overflows" were
only valid when used with specific hardware combinations (think ECC
RAM, etc) specified by the software manufacturer.

This should include BOTH Linux camps and Microsoft camps.

It's becoming more and more clear that the industry itself is
incapable of fixing these problems as it has no clear incentive.  
Time to change the incentive part of the equation and make it a
disincentive to release any software with a security bug.  Without
creating a system whereby the manufacturer of the software is
responsible for their own work, I do not see any way to improve the
quality of software as a whole.

I don't care if the cost of software increases ten fold or it takes
five times as long to get it out the door, our current industry wide
practices are simply not good enough.  It is time that was fixed.

How much would it cost Microsoft to do extensive testing of Windows
XP, prior to launch, searching for buffer overflows (for example) in
every DLL routine, etc, vs how much it will cost the world to clean up
later as the bugs get reported ?

Look at all the i's which need dotting and t's which need crossing if
you want to make a vehicle to drive on the roads, never mind sell to
others.

Why do we accept a complete lack of such standards in the software
industry?

Unfortunately to get anything along these lines requires lobbying
politicians to get them to understand and write the correct bill.

Darren

(I'm in rant mode about this)



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