Re: Your router/switch may be less secure than you think

[Michael.Dillon () btradianz com]

> > We should all be looking to the security auditing work done by
> > the OpenBSD team for an example of how systems can be 
> > cleaned up, fixed, and locked down if there is a will to do so.
>
> Beer, unsupported assertions, and lack of rigorous audit methodology
> can be blended together to make one's code more secure?

Perhaps you aren't aware of what the OpenBSD team accomplished?
Their techniques may not be rigorously documented but they
have been used in other projects:

http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~angelos/Papers/posse-chapter.pdf
    ABSTRACT
    This chapter reports on our experiences with POSSE, a project 
    studying ?Portable Open Source Security Elements? as part of the 
    larger DARPA effort on Composable High Assurance Trusted Systems. 
    We describe the organization created to manage POSSE and the 
    significant acceleration in producing widely used secure software
    that has resulted. ...

The OpenBSD team provide a brief overview of their process here:
http://www.openbsd.org/security.html
And a security consulting company describes the lessons of 
OpenBSD here:
http://www.openlysecure.org/openbsd/security/sec_lessons

Their process has some parallels in the activities of groups like
the Columbia Accident Inquiry Board and the 911 Commission. 
Openness, rigourous examination, attention to detail...

--Michael Dillon