Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 15th Dec 2010 23:34 UTC, submitted by Oliver
OpenBSD Yesterday, we reported on the allegations made by Gregory Perry. He claims that 10 years ago, several developers were paid by the FBI to implement hidden backdoors into OpenBSD's IPSEC stack. This has prompted a lot of speculation about the allegations' validity, and less than 24 hours later, it has descended into one person's word against that of others. Update: Jason Wright, too, denies all the allegations. "I will state clearly that I did not add backdoors to the OpenBSD operating system or the OpenBSD crypto framework (OCF). [...] It is a baseless accusation the reason for which I cannot understand."
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Why haven't they checked the code yet?
by toast88 on Thu 16th Dec 2010 09:31 UTC
toast88
Member since:
2009-09-23

Hi,

I mean, I understand that the IP stack and all the related networking stuff are surely somewhat complex. But I assume that there are enough OpenBSD developers available to scrutinize the affected code areas now.

Why haven't this been happened yet and why are we still left in the dark?

Is the code really that extensive that it would take weeks to check it?

Everything else is just pure speculation!

Adrian

Reply Score: 0

Melicerte Member since:
2006-08-29

Have you read Theo de Raadt anwser?

I refuse to become part of such a conspiracy, and will not be talking to Gregory Perry about this. Therefore I am making it public so that
(a) those who use the code can audit it for these problems,
(b) those that are angry at the story can take other actions,
(c) if it is not true, those who are being accused can defend themselves.

Also, please read the very end of this link:
http://marc.info/?l=freebsd-security&m=129247685124261&w=2

Reply Parent Score: 3

Lennie Member since:
2007-09-22

Let me guess, you are not a programmer or you don't know networking/crypto.

Because what is most likely going on is that the people funded by the FBI made a small mistake in the implementation of the IPSEC-protocol/crypto algorithm.

Or some part of a network-hardware driver which includes part of a key in the IPSEC-stream.

That is not something which can be checked in a few hours. It will take weeks, maybe months.

You have to remember they are not looking for something which is wrong, they are checking if everything is right.

Checking for things which are wrong is useless in this case.

Reply Parent Score: 7

RightsOfMan Member since:
2010-12-17

...That is not something which can be checked in a few hours. It will take weeks, maybe months...


Exactly right; _IF_ the "Feds" did do it, the strategy would not be to engineer in a straightforward passkey (as they had envisioned with the "Clipper" chip...), but just a weakness, much in the same way that Bletchley Park had used to break Enigma; cf. WWII German Enigma Information Security and its Weaknesses [ www.cromwell-intl.com/security/history/enigma.html ] Knowing the weakness, the NSA can then decrypt messages; few else will be able to since they don't know the weakness and probably don't have the computing power hooked up to Internet traffic that the NSA does.

I think that the person here will have to back up his allegations with a little more than guesses and speculation or else be justly liable for a tremendous legal backlash (e.g., the specific weakness that can be shown to have been contributed by the Fed code donors, and _at least_ proof, by multiple cryptanalysts of standing, that knowledge of the weakness and use of a specific practical quantity of computing power decrypts the traffic)

It would not shock me if the Feds did it; it would have been well intentioned, but quite foolish given the longer-term consequences for the US if+when it gets found out (unless when it does, it can be show by the US that it had saved lives -good luck with that...)

My biggest problem with the Patriot Act+NSA's eavesdropping policies; nowhere do they discuss any _real_ oversight. And the press at large are COMPLETELY not doing their job laying it out for non-techs to understand.

For example: you work at NSA; you don't get paid a hell of a lot (though you should...) You look at traffic pertaining to a huge financial deal that's going down. You act on that info (through anonymous proxies, of course...) to score zillions of dollars. What, because you might be military or have many years working for the NSA, that's unthinkable? I know Cheney's people thought so!

The only Senator to challenge these naivetes in the legislative code pertaining to eavesdropping was Russ Feingold; and he just lost reelection.

Here in the States we now live in a crypto-oligarchy; the government secretly (and of course sometimes not-so-secretly!) serves the interests of the super-rich. There are battles for Justice for all that are won by some dedicated federal law enforcement agents; but when a Big Money interest is threatened, they make the call to their man in Congress, the DOJ, or the White House and get their interests protected -Justice be damned. Many here in the States thought that after the Saturday Night Massacre [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Massacre ] that the DOJ was politically inviolable; Gonzales+Abramoff hearings, anybody?

P.S. On the related note of State actors who undertake cyberintelligence gathering/cyberwarfare; there was some speculation some weeks back about who was behind the Stuxnet virus (it had code specifically engineered to mess up Iranian nuke equipment...) In my technical opinion it was _not_ the US; that move was very risky and the US is shy about high risk intelligence _actions_ (intelligence gathering is quite another story...) By releasing that worm it may have slowed down the Iranians, but it causes a bunch of other problems (e.g., the release in the wild educates cyber criminals at large in how to perpetrate more cyber crime). So it was a State actor who was concerned about just their interests in combatting Iran, and the broader interests of all others on the planet be dammed.

Not that _I_ want to see Iran get nukes! But I think we have to grow up now and acknowledge that that "train left the station" when Khan (the Pakistani nuclear scientist...) was given the access he was, decades ago. Hence the news items you see released just today about sobering discussions, once more, of what we should do when a nuke goes off...

Reply Parent Score: 3