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Debian Bug Leaves Private SSL/SSH Keys Guessable
SecurityBob writes "Debian package maintainers tend to very often modify the source code of the package they are maintaining so that it better fits into the distribution itself. However, most of the time, their changes are not sent back to upstream for validation, which might cause some tension between upstream developers and Debian packagers. Today, a critical security advisory has been released: a Debian packager modified the source code of OpenSSL back in 2006 so as to remove the seeding of OpenSSL random number generator, which in turns makes cryptographic key material generated on a Debian system guessable. The solution? Upgrade OpenSSL and re-generate all your SSH and SSL keys. This problem not only affects Debian, but also all its derivatives, such as Ubuntu." Reader RichiH also points to Debian's announcement and Ubuntu's announcement.
'Makes it appear to be run by a bunch of half-wits.. I don't understand any level of justification that would make anybody think it was wise to touch SSL in your own distribution.
Such bugs and the thread posted from debian discussions show how far linux has to go to really be viewed in any sort of professional light.
If you want to walk around being an insulting moron then I'd prefer you to exercise your freedom of expression elsewhere. Slashdot is a private organization and you have no right to express yourself in this particular place.
(I have no problems with people who don't understand the problem, only with those who are militant about it.)
If you mod me Overrated, you are admitting that you have no penis.
The packager who did this was completely correct to do so. Reading uninitialized memory is evil. If the routine doing the reading has been called ReadUnitializedMemoryAsASourceOfRandomness(), the problem never would have happened. Everyone is blaming the packager, but it is the idiot who wrote the seeder in the first place who is to blame. Stupid cutesy tricks have no place in something supposed to be 'secure.'
Seriously, I'm glad I don't put up with this shit from Debian. The place for code development is upstream. If you have a patch, get it upstream and get the approval of the people who actually develop the software so you can understand why Valgrind is complaining the way it is and why it has been left in. Backporting security fixes because of Debian's stupid development cycle I can just about understand (and even that's a problem as upstream moves on to new versions), but hacking on something downstream that few people will see is one reason why I just don't feel too much trust for Debian - and they do it far more than they should usually because of their own silly ideas about what is 'right'. There's just no reason for that patch at all.
I have quite a few OpenVPN keys generated for a wide variety of purposes, and if I'd been using Debian's OpenSSL then I'd be really pissed. There's just no reason for this, and no reason for anyone outside of upstream to commit a patch like that - and there it would have been caught pretty much instantly before a release was even made, or even better, dismissed as the crap that it is.
All that crap you hear from certain people about Debian being 'rock solid' and 'stable' is just that. Crap.