OpenBSD Will Not Fix PRNG Weakness

snake-oil-security writes "Last fall Amit Klein found a serious weakness in the OpenBSD PRNG (pseudo-random number generator), which allows an attacker to predict the next DNS transaction ID. The same flavor of this PRNG is used in other places like the OpenBSD kernel network stack. Several other BSD operating systems copied the OpenBSD code for their own PRNG, so they're vulnerable too; Apple's Darwin-based Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server, and also NetBSD, FreeBSD, and DragonFlyBSD. All the above-mentioned vendors were contacted in November 2007. FreeBSD, NetBSD, and DragonFlyBSD committed a fix to their respective source code trees, Apple refused to provide any schedule for a fix, but OpenBSD decided not to fix it. OpenBSD's coordinator stated, in an email, that OpenBSD is completely uninterested in the problem and that the problem is completely irrelevant in the real world. This was highlighted recently when Amit Klein posted to the BugTraq list."

Comments

Re:Uh what ... yeah

[aliquis]

But with BSD I have the freedom to do whatever I want with it, with GPL the freedom of using the source code are guaranteed.

Re:then exploit it (if you can)

[billcopc]

I second that statement. If OpenBSD refuses to fix it, and you think that's wrong, then prove them wrong.

Personally, I think OpenBSD should simply be left alone to die peacefully. I simply cannot stand that squirrelly OS.