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Date:      Fri, 14 Jul 2000 22:50:00 -0700
From:      bmah@cisco.com (Bruce A. Mah)
To:        Warner Losh <imp@village.org>
Cc:        ports@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Version question/request 
Message-ID:  <200007150550.e6F5o0P02257@bmah-freebsd-0.cisco.com>
In-Reply-To: <200007150511.XAA01511@billy-club.village.org> 
References:  <200007150511.XAA01511@billy-club.village.org>

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If memory serves me right, Warner Losh wrote:

> I'd like to create a script that runs in /etc/security that will
> produce output like the following:
> 
> YOUR SYSTEM HAS THE FOLLOWING PORTS THAT HAVE KNOWN SECURITY ISSUES IN
> THE VERSION YOU ARE RUNNING:
> 	woofootd (have 2.1 need 2.2)
> 	qpooper (have 2.98 need 3.11)
> etc

Nice.  One thing I'd suggest is that the script gets updated as a part 
of the Ports Collection, rather than as one of the source collections.  
I'm presuming that many users will cvsup their Ports Collection tree 
far more frequently than they'd do a make world.

> This works great most of the time, however there are times that it
> doesn't work.  Those times are where we've either F'ed up a patch so
> there's a security hole or we patch it with a patch-xx file before the
> author can issue a new release.  In these cases when the problem is
> fixed, I'd love the version number to change with (or soon after) the
> security patch goes into the tree.

Well, I think it's not a bad idea for updating ports in general (in 
other words, we add a patchfile to fix a bug, so the user should 
reinstall, even though the version number of the underlying software 
didn't change.  So I can see some more general utility beyond dealing 
just with security issues (though these are probably the most important 
examples).

> Does anybody have any good ideas on how to do the version number part
> of this?  I was thinking of adding a known suffix like "-S1" for the
> first security fix "-S2" for the second, etc.  Then when the author
> fixes it and generates his own version, the suffix goes away.  This
> would give us wu-ftpd-2.6.1-S2 which will sort after 2.6.1 but before
> 2.6.2.  Hmmm, that does assume that the author fixes it in his/her/its
> next release, so maybe some other tag is needed.

When I was working on pkg_version, I thought of having something that
tracks the last time any of a Port's files get modified.  It'd have to
be automatic, because otherwise, updating a port would be too painful.
We can't depend on the modification dates of (e.g.) the Makefile or the
patchfiles.

Here's a wild thought.  You proposed having the version number 
supercede a "security fix" number.  What about having the "security 
fix" number supercede the version number?  You start off having a 
security fix number of zero.  The first time you issue an advisory (and 
commit a fix to the Ports Collection tree), you increment the security 
fix number.  If the author fixes it (and bumps the version number) 
that's fine.  In other words:

	Fix	Version
	0	1.0		# first release
	0	1.1		# normal version update
	1	1.1		# security fix issued against 1.1
				# make sure users have at least fix=1,
				# version 1.1
	1	1.2		# author fixed it, but we keep fix=1,
				# users are still OK with fix=1, version 1.1

	2	1.2		# another security hole, advisory fixed
	3	1.2		# yet another hole, author still hasn't
				# done anything but as long as users
				# have at least fix=3, version=1.2,
				# they're "safe"
	3	1.3		# author finally fixed it

I have to think about implications for pkg_version now, if any. I don't
think the security fix number belongs as a part of the version number
(e.g. xmmix-1.2), but I can't think of a clean way to do this otherwise.

I wonder if this is going to make any sense after I wake up in the 
morning...  :-p

Bruce.



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