Entries tagged dsa

Friday Morning I ordered an 80Gb iPod classic.

Friday Afternoon I discover Apple Cuts Off Linux iPod Users

Saturday / Sunday I follow along on IRC the reverse engineering effort

Progress is being made, but still a little bit away from having a result. In the meantime I'm ripping Megan's cds.

In other news Debian Security Advisories are being held up by missing buildd machines for several archs.

Previously I supported the position that Debian should release for 14+ plus platforms, but given the regular frustrations and delays I'm now of the opinion that we should only release for platforms that have at least two buildds - one for security, and one for regular use.

(Benefit of two? If one dies we can both use the other.)

Finally I'm still doing more SMTP work, and it is going extremely well. The next job is to wire up a payment gateway which is tedious and dull.

Update - Looks like the ipod issue is fixed. kudos to wtbw + nopcode .. and everybody else who put in the work.

Tags: anti-spam, anti-virus, buildd, dsa, ipod | No comments

The following companies, or people, are using xen-shell with their Xen hosting product(s):

• xen kibbutz
• xen hosting (me!)
• bit folk
• Datarealm internet services
• Chris Lamb
• Cernio

I'm sure there are more, but I've been lax at keeping track. I do want a list, if only for advertising purposes. I'll update the list here if/when people point out omissions.

In other news yesterday I managed to release security updates for KDM & fetchmail which were missing i386 builds. Not good.

The problem was fixed fairly quickly once it was actually noticed, with the help of Noah. But I did get several angry emails during the wait. *sigh*

It looks like people are starting the notice the downside to having broken security buildd machines which frequently cause these kind of problems for us - so hopefully these kind of errors will diminish in time. (Who am I kidding?)

Tags: buildd, dsa, irritations, security advisories, xen-tools | No comments

Bits from the Security Team

• We get tons of spam. If your issue isn't replied to at least once wait a day and resend.
• Frequently advisories are delayed because our buildd machines are broken. We can't fix them.
• People reporting bugs with the 'security' tag help us.
• People reporting bugs with patches help us more.
• People reporting bugs with patches and pointers to fixed packages they have build help us best.
• I like pies.

I am happy to look over patches, built packages, and generally encourage people to be involved. Our team isn't huge but historically we've only added people who've done a fair bit of work first. That is both good and bad.

I could write more, and probably should, but I'll stop there for now because I'm frustrated by the HPPA build machine. Again.

ObRelated: Moritz is trying to get the archive rebuilt with security features from our compilers (eg. -fstack-protector) included. This would be a fantastic achievement. People interested in tested kernel patches, donating buildd machines, etc, etc should give him a ping.

Tags: debian, dsa, hardening, pies, security team | No comments

This week in brief:

I've rejoined the Debian Security Team

My first (recent) DSA was released earlier today, with assistance from various team members. (My memory of the process was poor, and some things have changed in my absence.)

BlogSpam gains a new user

The BlogSpam API is now available for users of Trac.

Finally, before I go, I've noticed several people on Planet Debian report their photo-challenges; either a picture a day or one a week. I too take pictures, and I'm happy if I get one session a month.

I suspect some of my content might be a bit too racy for publication here. If you're not avoiding friendface-style sites you can follow "highlights" easily enough - or just look at the site.

ObQuote: "Be strong and you will be renewed. Identify. " - Logan's Run (1976)

Tags: blogspam, debian, dsa, stolen-souls, youtube | No comments