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Date:      Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:45:42 +0100
From:      "Bas Smeelen" <b.smeelen@ose.nl>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Fw: Merry Christmas from the FreeBSD Security Team
Message-ID:  <20111223164542.b74a8519@mail.ose.nl>

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=5F=5F=5F=5F=5F =20
From: FreeBSD Security Officer [mailto:cperciva@freebsd.org]
To: freebsd-security@freebsd.org
Sent: Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:41:20 +0100
Subject: Merry Christmas from the FreeBSD Security Team

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Hash: SHA1

Hi all,

No, the Grinch didn't steal the FreeBSD security officer GPG key, and yo=
ur eyes
aren't deceiving you: We really did just send out 5 security advisories.

The timing, to put it bluntly, sucks.  We normally aim to release adviso=
ries on
Wednesdays in order to maximize the number of system administrators who =
will be
at work already; and we try very hard to avoid issuing advisories any ti=
me close
to holidays for the same reason.  The start of the Christmas weekend -- =
in some
parts of the world it's already Saturday -- is absolutely not when we wa=
nt to be
releasing security advisories.

Unfortunately my hand was forced: One of the issues (FreeBSD-SA-11:08.te=
lnetd)
is a remote root vulnerability which is being actively exploited in the =
wild;
bugs really don't come any worse than this.  On the positive side, most =
people
have moved past telnet and on to SSH by now; but this is still not an is=
sue we
could postpone until a more convenient time.

While I'm writing, a note to freebsd-update users: FreeBSD-SA-11:07.chro=
ot has a
rather messy fix involving adding a new interface to libc; this has the =
awkward
side effect of causing the sizes of some "symbols" (aka. functions) in l=
ibc to
change, resulting in cascading changes into many binaries.  The long lis=
t of
updated files is irritating, but isn't a sign that anything in freebsd-u=
pdate
went wrong.

- --=20
Colin Percival
Security Officer, FreeBSD | freebsd.org | The power to serve
Founder / author, Tarsnap | tarsnap.com | Online backups for the truly p=
aranoid
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merry Christmas

Disclaimer=3A http=3A//www=2Eose=2Enl/email




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