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Date:      Fri, 11 Apr 2014 16:55:04 -0500
From:      Bryan Drewery <bdrewery@FreeBSD.org>
To:        David.I.Noel@gmail.com
Cc:        freebsd-security@freebsd.org, d@delphij.net, secteam <secteam@freebsd.org>, security@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Retiring portsnap [was MITM attacks against portsnap and freebsd-update]
Message-ID:  <9a96e11b0edf412d0a3f79afdbecc4fd@shatow.net>
In-Reply-To: <CAHAXwYDhxmEwxtBLyZF1R1F8XENsq4FbpzVy89BN8f%2BRYU74KA@mail.gmail.com>
References:  <CAHAXwYCGkP-o0VvMXj5S8-KNA45aTvy%2BsrjDL_=8-x9Dza5z5Q@mail.gmail.com> <53472B7F.5090001@FreeBSD.org> <CAHAXwYDdxbRimwjvPf%2B5odYUUN4u4rNzdEkEmWwZN97mi1riEg@mail.gmail.com> <53483074.1050100@delphij.net> <CAHAXwYDhxmEwxtBLyZF1R1F8XENsq4FbpzVy89BN8f%2BRYU74KA@mail.gmail.com>

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On 2014-04-11 15:23, David Noel wrote:
>>> If you look at the portsnap build code you'll see that the first
>>> thing portsnap does is pull the ports tree from Subversion. It uses
>>> the URL svn://svn.freebsd.org/ports. By not using ssl or svn+ssh
>>> the entire ports archive is exposed to corruption right from the
>>> start.
>> 
>> Just to clarify -- this is not entirely true.  I have double checked
>> and confirmed that the snapshot builder of portsnap at FreeBSD.org
>> uses svn over spiped transport.
>> 
>> The configuration on svn do not necessarily reflect what's running in
>> production (however you brought a very good point that it's a good
>> idea to bring them public assuming there is no sensitive information
>> in them so anyone can review them).
> 
> Thanks for checking on that. I don't have production access so I could
> only assume that what was in /user/cperciva/portsnap-build was what we
> were running. I'm surprised to find out that it's not.
> 
> My main point was that if you don't trust Subversion it makes no sense
> to say you trust portsnap. Portsnap pulls the ports tree from
> Subversion. Using Subversion! The portsnap system relies on the trust
> of both svnadmin and svn. Just as it does when you run svn co and svn
> up. If you say you don't trust Subversion, essentially what you're
> saying is that you don't trust anything running on your computer.
> 
>> you brought a very good point that it's a good
>> idea to bring them public assuming there is no sensitive information
>> in them so anyone can review them).
> 
> Thank you. I hope something comes of this conversation. I have no
> access to production so for these sorts of things all I can do is mail
> this list and hope that someone makes the requested changes.

Who said we don't trust subversion? I certainly was not meaning that.

-- 
Regards,
Bryan Drewery



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