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Does Open Source Need a Red Team?
"The Team could also provide a set of recommended processes and tools for O.S. projects to follow prior to submission to the Red Team test queue. This by itself would be a valuable tool.
Such teams are sometimes used by companies to test the security of their networks and software. The O.S. community have done an excellent job so far, but as open source is used more and more by the mainstream computer users, vetting by a 3rd party would help make many organizations more likely to accept a piece of O.S. software.
The Team would, like any open source project, be comprised of both experts and newbies. The newbies would have the opportunity of doing real testing under the guidance of folks who know more, thereby becoming more expert themselves. The experts would provide a centralized open-source-oriented set of recommendations and specialized review as needed.
Either the Red Team or its members could also provide paid services for commercial software, and could participate with university CS departments in training students, providing the opportunity for valuable cross-training between schools. It might even be possible to arrange course credit for work on the Team.
Many Open Source projects could benefit from such a 3rd party group to recommend development procedures, code styles, and actual testing to teach and motivate better security practices in code design. The plain fact is that many (most?) of us developers are not completely 'up' on the issue of security - it's a very dynamic area of specialization. This initiative could be another resource that will be useful in establishing OS in the mainstream."
And of course, the benefit of open source is that all sorts of motivated, talented people from all over the world pitch in to do a similar analysis for free, and without a formal "red team." This breaks down quite a bit with the volume of Free Software being produced nowadays, however. But the important pieces of infrastructure (Apache, e.g.) DO get the scrutiny their importance demands. Not to mention pounding by black hats.
Someone mentioned OpenBSD. But even they don't audit everything. They confine their attention to the core of the OS. That's quite a lot of software, but the ports tree is quite a bit more. The ports get somewhat more attention than they would simply because you've got a large set of security conscious users.
"Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there" - Will Rogers
The first phase of the open model was the developer stage - individual people contributed their talents to produce interesting software. Their products were raw and unrefined, but very powerful. All of the best practices that (supposedly) happen at commercial software houses - all of that process - was chucked out the window in favor of devoting time to the very real creative experience of molding and bending and shaping new code.
The second phase of the open model was the documentation phase. When they collected code from the net to make their products, the commerical vendors of open software took the raw, unrefined code, and harnessed its power into a form that PHBs could recognize. Now we have Ximian - a refined product that PHBs recognize, built on the creativity of GNOME developers. Now we have MontaVista and Timesys Linux kernels - products that PHBs recognize, refined to their needs, but built on the creativity of the kernel developers.
I suppose that the third stage of the open model might be to do this - to help open projects apply best practices for software creation, test, and maintenance. I just don't know who you're going to get to do it. Individual developers, I would imagine, will be more concerned with the raw creativity of hacking at code in vi. Commercial companies will more be more likely to apply these practices to the code that they ship their customers, not the code that lives in the repository at SourceForge, although maybe they coincide.
I suppose my point is that you have to find people who want to do it, or money to make people want to, and I'm not sure where you're going to find either.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog, its too dark to read.
http://www.osdl.org/
I recall they are an organization sponsored by big names in the IT industry, that could possibly emplore such an idea. Their idea is to proviude enterprise class testing to help advance the linux community. I don't see why this couldn't be an extension of it.
I'm sure a nicely worded, thought out paper explaining the benefits would at least get a response, and possibly spike some interest.
A while back I wrote a paper titled The Two-Edged Sword of Open Source Software, which might be of interest.
You think a process will make OSS better? The act of defining a process renders it useless, as the principles become static. Software will only get better when we do away with processes. Software is complex, it requires us to think -- not follow procedures.
I've been a part of many small and large processes, and none of them were effective. The best any of them were able to do was to soften what was produced by the morons. In lessening the effect of retarded developers, the processes become a hindering block to those who know wtf they are doing. Process is so fun.
Software development needs to be organic. OSS needs more mentors, gurus of the deep, dark, unknown to become one with the new blood. It is about community, and about collaboration - the real sort of kinship where people build things together. Process is about as un-personal as it gets.
mx
Nice idea. However, it fails on one problem: there is no "Open Source Community". Or rather, there is, but it's not the sort of homogenous, integrated entity/organization that gives managers and powerpoint jockeys warm fuzzy feelings.
Rather, it's a bunch of dudes knocking out code. And for the same reason you're not going to get most of them to provide adequate documentation, which is thoroughly understandable given that (a) they're doing something for fun, and (b) they're not getting paid for it, you're not going to get these people to submit to procedures and processes, on the whole. Hobbyists will continue to build stuff on a lark, doing it the way they feel like doing it.
Now if you want to provide something like this as a service for companies hoping to use OSS, great. However, someone would have to pay for it, which takes away one of the big pluses of OSS. In fact, that's one of the reasons your average commercial entity goes for proprietary software--it's the management perception that there is an organized set of procedures and such behind its development (usually true to some degree) as well as an organization they can sue if things go pear-shaped.
Nice idea, but needs practical development.
Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage
Folks... it's called "bugtraq" and it's been around for decades.
;)
Anyone else amused by the irony that someone is advocating open source software should start practising the things closed source development is now getting buzzword compliant with, which is made popular in that arena because its already such a success with open source software?
Matt
I suppose that the third stage of the open model might be to do this - to help open projects apply best practices for software creation, test, and maintenance.
Are you implying that open development (with its world-readable version trees, communication through archived, public message systems, bypassing monetary systems as the controlling aspect of software development, etc.) has somehow proved itself so inefficient that it should be given up in favor of whatever the closed development sector has to offer?
It's the closed commercial sector that is supposed to bend toward open methods, not vice versa. That is happening through grass-roots efforts like "stealth" installments of Linux-servers in the end of 1990's followed by "stealth" installments of Linux-workstations right now, as well as governmental and communal bodies around the world already embracing the open model as a cost- and result-effective method unbound by the insecurities of commercial offerings.
I'm sorry to sound this flamy, but your comment (as well as this whole subject, actually) reminds me of quite a few people who claim they have a grasp of the open development model, while they still look at it through a 1980's commerce school's window.
As for the security of Open offerings, mature projects' insecurity (the cumulative time window of exploits open against product's lifetime) should be compared to that of closed-development (=non-patch-accepting) offerings. From what I gather, on that basis insurance prices against IT disasters should be considerably cheaper with mature Open products.
I think, therefore thoughts exist. Ego is just an impression.
... Sure, so long as they don't join Starfleet.
Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and the Red Team beam down to an alien planet -
Kirk - "Rodriguez, check to see what's causing that buzzing sound coming from the rock nearby."
Rodriguez (Red Team) - "Bleep you! Go check it out yourself! We've lost three Red Team members this past week that beamed down to strange worlds with you!"
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde