RE: Cyber attacks "escalating" on irresponsible Tavis Ormandy disclosure

["Murda" <murdamcloud () bigpond com>]

> > As long as he doesn't know about a vulnerabilty, he's totally
in the dark,

This makes me wonder about the quality of our knowledge on things that we
don't know(sounds stupid and paradoxical but just think about it for a few
minutes). It reminds me of Rumsfeld's 'known unknowns and unknown unknowns'.
Which is a strangely insightful thing to say-even if it does sound
illogical(it is actually very logical).

Discovering vulnerabilities has something incremental in its process as much
as it has elements of serendipity and luck associated with it.
Hackers(wearing white/black/grey or Joseph's Technicolour hats) often do
some tinkering and find something unusual and interesting. 

So perhaps vendors and developers need to be more aware of the limits of
their knowledge of their own software and of the processes that they use to
create that software. And disclosures of vulnerabilities are a stark
reminder of that.



-----Original Message-----
From: listbounce () securityfocus com [mailto:listbounce () securityfocus com] On
Behalf Of Ansgar Wiechers
Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2010 6:10 AM
To: security-basics () securityfocus com
Subject: Re: Cyber attacks "escalating" on irresponsible Tavis Ormandy
disclosure

On 2010-07-06 fyne_ugo () yahoo com wrote:
> Vulnerabilities shouldn't be disclosed publicly. Its only hackers that
> would benefit from them.

That's just plain and utterly wrong. As John Morrison pointed out: once
a system administrator becomesaware of a vulnerability, he can take
steps to mitigate the vulnerability or its effects, even if  can't fix
it myself. As long as he doesn't know about a vulnerabilty, he's totally
in the dark, which is a lot less likely for The Bad Guys(tm).

> There should be bodies that will follow up and check them.

Who are these "bodies" supposed to be? Apparently not vendors, since
they'd rather threaten researchers than fix their own screw-ups:

<http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Security-expert-once-more-threat
ened-with-arrest-for-giving-talk-1034373.html>

Regards
Ansgar Wiechers
-- 
"All vulnerabilities deserve a public fear period prior to patches
becoming available."
--Jason Coombs on Bugtraq

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------------------------------------------------------------------------
Securing Apache Web Server with thawte Digital Certificate
In this guide we examine the importance of Apache-SSL and who needs an SSL certificate.  We look at how SSL works, how 
it benefits your company and how your customers can tell if a site is secure. You will find out how to test, purchase, 
install and use a thawte Digital Certificate on your Apache web server. Throughout, best practices for set-up are 
highlighted to help you ensure efficient ongoing management of your encryption keys and digital certificates.

http://www.dinclinx.com/Redirect.aspx?36;4175;25;1371;0;5;946;e13b6be442f727d1
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