LWN: Comments on "Quotes of the week"

Quotes of the week

roelofs — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 02:39:40 +0000

Viro makes an interesting charge:

Going to vendor-sec is a mistake I won't repeat any time soon and I would strongly recommend everybody else to stay the hell away from that morass. It creates inexcusable delays, bounds you to confidentiality and, let's face it, happens to be the prime infiltration target for zero-day exploit traders.

Which part do you see as the charge, or do you mean the whole thing? It certainly creates delays, but I don't think that's a surprise to any of us. It's also unquestionably a prime infiltration target, but that doesn't imply anyone has yet succeeded in doing so; we ("most of us") simply don't know. Finally, he claims vendor-sec binds you to confidentiality, but that's only if you (and/or your employer) allow it; you (or your employer) can also choose to contact them in write-only fashion, provide a disclosure date, and leave it at that. Without a written and mutually-agreed-to contract, what obligation do you have beyond those of basic courtesy/altruism/etc.? IANAL, but I don't think shrinkwrap provisions would have legal force even if they attempted it, and AFAIK, they haven't attempted it.

Greg

Quotes of the week

JoeBuck — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 03:57:40 +0000

Viro makes an interesting charge:

Going to vendor-sec is a mistake I won't repeat any time soon and I would strongly recommend everybody else to stay the hell away from that morass. It creates inexcusable delays, bounds you to confidentiality and, let's face it, happens to be the prime infiltration target for zero-day exploit traders.

Quotes of the week

zooko — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:45:38 +0000

I did read the whole thing and it was well worth it for the analysis of the history of a
specific security flaw and its patches.

Quotes of the week

nix — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:21:13 +0000

Indeed. I don't think I've ever seen 'gentlemen' used as an insult before.

Al shames those of us for whom English is our native tongue. :)

Quotes of the week

flewellyn — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:50:47 +0000

Viro, as usual, is both right and deliciously snarky.