OpenBSD Archive

"IT staff can make almost any software system secure with enough pain and wizardry, but getting great security with hardly any effort at all is true magic. That's the attraction of the Internet's most secure operating system, OpenBSD. The latest release of OpenBSD, Version 3.2, started shipping Nov. 1." Read the article at eWeek.

"Todd Fries and Todd Miller happily send along notice that OpenBSD 3.2 has been released. It's available by FTP, CDROMs are shipping, and is CVS if you want to source upgrade. This is a big release for OpenBSD with many substantial changes. Many users will want to reinstall from scratch and not upgrade, as architecture changes on some platforms as well as enhanced security features are best taken advantage of that way. Read on for the release notes." Read the full release notes at Deadly.org.

The main goal of the is to add a graphical installation to OpenBSD. This project has been developped in the spirit of OpenBSD which means that the installation is as close as possible as the text one. wishes to add some value to the product by developping installation modules to known servers such as Bind, Sendmail, Inn, Apache etc. Our Take: Great project, but may I point out the illegal use of the BeOS and (some) Windows icons in the Installer?

"With more and more hosts being connected to the Internet, the importance of securing connected networks has increased, too. One mechanism to provide enhanced security for a network is to filter out potentially malicious network packets. Firewalls are designed to provide ``policy-based'' network filtering." Read the paper at Benzedrine.

OpenBSD 3.1 was just released with many improvements and new software installed (more than 1000 packages and XFree 4.2). Get it while it's hot.

OpenBSD leader and creator Theo de Raadt explained OpenBSD 3.1 will only be available through the retail channels and not available as ISOs: "It simply does not make economic sense for us to reduce the CD sales we have now." OpenBSD currently ships as a 3 CD set. With 3.1, available in June, there will be an extra fourth CD only available as an ISO for download. Additionally, the CD comes with a sheet of special OpenBSD stickers and a bonus music track. Read more at KernelTrap.

"Like almost all things in life, good security costs good money. It has to be that way, because there are simply not enough skilled security specialists to look after all of the networks that need their attention. An unfortunate result of low supply and high demand is the migration of highly skilled personnel to clients who can meet their salary requirements. This leaves a lot of small and underfunded networks in the hands of less experienced administrators, who might not know how to design, configure, and monitor these networks' safety mechanisms, leaving them vulnerable to attacks from unscrupulous people looking for inside information, free warez storage, zombie hosts for DDoS attacks, or systems they can simply destroy for fun of doing it." Read the rest of the article at O'Reilly.

Daemonnews reports that "Looks like the OpenBSD project is a bit ahead of the scheduled Dec 1st release date for OpenBSD 3.0. This release is a 3 CD set, instead of the usual 2 CD set, but still comes in the 2CD size jewel case." In related BSD news, USB v2.0 support added to NetBSD-current. "The new ehci driver is still in development but is in a working state for some mass storage devices, such as CD-RW drives."

OpenBSD 3.0 is now available for pre-order from the OpenBSD web site on 3 CDs, for US$40 (up $10 from recent releases). What's new: (1) ipf is now replaced by OpenBSD's own firewall/NAT system; (2) OpenSSH 3.O; (3) The CDs are bootable on 6 architectures; and (4) disc 2 has a mystery audio track! Sales of CDs, T-shirts, and posters are the primary source of funding for OpenBSD development.