Re: OpenSSL X.509 Email Address 4-byte Buffer Overflow (CVE-2022-3602), X.509 Email Address Variable Length Buffer Overflow (CVE-2022-3786)

[Demi Marie Obenour <demi () invisiblethingslab com>]

On Wed, Nov 02, 2022 at 06:35:42AM +1100, Dave Horsfall wrote:
> On Tue, 1 Nov 2022, Demi Marie Obenour wrote:
>
> [ Massive trim ]
>
> > 3. When will OpenSSL be replaced by something written in a safe
> >    language, or at least with a better-maintained fork?  I know that
> >    distributions often cannot use LibreSSL (because FIPS, ugh) or
> >    BoringSSL (because of no stable API or ABI), but I wonder if e.g.
> >    libcurl should be linked to BoringSSL instead.
>
> We see this over at https://boringssl.googlesource.com/boringssl/ :
>
>   ``Although BoringSSL is an open source project, it is not intended
>     for general use, as OpenSSL is. We don't recommend that third parties
>     depend upon it. Doing so is likely to be frustrating because there
>     are no guarantees of API or ABI stability.''
>
> If even the manufacturer says that you shouldn't use it...

My understanding was that libcurl gets updated whenever BoringSSL needs
a change, and that libcurl’s API does not depend on what TLS backend it
uses.  Applications would not be impacted, since they would only use the
libcurl API and ABI.

That said, this would require constantly updating to new versions of
libcurl + BoringSSL, so it might not make sense in general.  LibreSSL or
rustls could well be a better choice.
-- 
Sincerely,
Demi Marie Obenour (she/her/hers)
Invisible Things Lab

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