A look at the MS-SQL worm [LWN.net]

A look at the MS-SQL worm

Posted Jan 30, 2003 12:11 UTC (Thu) by philips (guest, #937)
In reply to: A look at the MS-SQL worm by skellba
Parent article: A look at the MS-SQL worm

> formal proof of correctness of programs is pratically impossible:
> the task is too big to be done. It would be better to not use
> programming languages like C or C++ which are inherently prone to
> buffer overflows and memory overwrites.

Take a look at:
http://downloads.securityfocus.com/library/ncsc-bblue.txt
B1 Mandatory Protection includes:

----- quote start -----
Design Documentation remains the same as C2, but also describes the
security policy model (either formally, i.e., mathematically, or
informally, i.e., in English) and how the TCB implements this model.
----- quote end -----

In other words, you have to open source at some degree your application
to conform to even to B1 class. You should specify how secure your
solution is and how did you achived this.

Another language buys you nothing - implementation & design flaws is
the point. Rember that 75% of errors are made at design time - even
before you started coding ;)

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MS-SQL worm - open source not needed for B1 rating

Posted Jan 30, 2003 20:27 UTC (Thu) by wittenberg (guest, #4473) [Link]

You don't need to open source to get B1 certification. Ten years ago I worked on a product that was to have been certified A1. We had to show our code to NCSC, but only under a non-disclosure agreement. So you need other people to look at the code, but you don't let everyone look at it.