[USN-1484-1] PyCrypto vulnerability

=======================================================================
Ubuntu Security Notice USN-1484-1
June 28, 2012

python-crypto vulnerability
=======================================================================

A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:

- Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
- Ubuntu 11.10
- Ubuntu 11.04
- Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

Summary:

PyCrypto improperly created ElGamal encryption keys.

Software Description:
- python-crypto: cryptographic algorithms and protocols for Python

Details:

It was discovered that PyCrypto produced inappropriate prime numbers when
generating ElGamal keys. An attacker could use this flaw to facilitate
brute-forcing of ElGamal encryption keys.

[USN-1483-2] network-manager-applet vulnerability

==========================================================================
Ubuntu Security Notice USN-1483-2
June 27, 2012

network-manager-applet vulnerability
==========================================================================

A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:

- Ubuntu 11.10
- Ubuntu 11.04
- Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

Summary:

network-manager-applet could create insecure AdHoc wireless networks.

Software Description:
- network-manager-applet: GNOME frontend for NetworkManager

Details:

USN-1483-1 fixed a vulnerability in NetworkManager by disabling the
creation of WPA-secured AdHoc wireless connections. This update provides
the corresponding change for network-manager-applet.

[USN-1483-1] NetworkManager vulnerability

==========================================================================
Ubuntu Security Notice USN-1483-1
June 27, 2012

network-manager vulnerability
==========================================================================

A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:

- Ubuntu 11.10
- Ubuntu 11.04
- Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

Summary:

NetworkManager could create insecure AdHoc wireless networks.

Software Description:
- network-manager: Network connection manager

Details:

It was discovered that certain wireless drivers incorrectly handled the
creation of WPA-secured AdHoc connections. This could result in AdHoc
wireless connections being created without any security at all. This update
removes WPA as a security choice for AdHoc connections in NetworkManager.

Update instructions:

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following
package versions:

Ubuntu 11.10:
network-manager 0.9.1.90-0ubuntu5.2

Ubuntu 11.04:
network-manager 0.8.4~git.20110319t175609.d14809b-0ubuntu3.1

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS:
network-manager 0.8-0ubuntu3.3

After a standard system update you need to reboot your computer to make
all the necessary changes.

References:
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-1483-1
CVE-2012-2736

Package Information:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/0.9.1.90-0ubuntu5.2
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/0.8.4~git.20110319t175609.d14809b-0ubuntu3.1
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/0.8-0ubuntu3.3

[USN-1463-6] Thunderbird vulnerabilities

========================================================================
Ubuntu Security Notice USN-1463-6
June 27, 2012

thunderbird vulnerabilities
========================================================================

A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:

- Ubuntu 11.04

Summary:

Several security issues were fixed in Thunderbird.

Software Description:
- thunderbird: Mozilla Open Source mail and newsgroup client

Details:

USN-1463-1 fixed vulnerabilities in Firefox. This update provides the
corresponding fixes for Thunderbird.

Original advisory details:

Jesse Ruderman, Igor Bukanov, Bill McCloskey, Christian Holler, Andrew
McCreight, Olli Pettay, Boris Zbarsky, and Brian Bondy discovered memory
safety issues affecting Firefox. If the user were tricked into opening a
specially crafted page, an attacker could possibly exploit these to cause a
denial of service via application crash, or potentially execute code with
the privileges of the user invoking Firefox. (CVE-2012-1937, CVE-2012-1938)

It was discovered that Mozilla's WebGL implementation exposed a bug in
certain NVIDIA graphics drivers. The impact of this issue has not been
disclosed at this time. (CVE-2011-3101)

Adam Barth discovered that certain inline event handlers were not being
blocked properly by the Content Security Policy's (CSP) inline-script
blocking feature. Web applications relying on this feature of CSP to
protect against cross-site scripting (XSS) were not fully protected. With
cross-site scripting vulnerabilities, if a user were tricked into viewing a
specially crafted page, a remote attacker could exploit this to modify the
contents, or steal confidential data, within the same domain.
(CVE-2012-1944)

Paul Stone discovered that a viewed HTML page hosted on a Windows or Samba
share could load Windows shortcut files (.lnk) in the same share. These
shortcut files could then link to arbitrary locations on the local file
system of the individual loading the HTML page. An attacker could
potentially use this vulnerability to show the contents of these linked
files or directories in an iframe, resulting in information disclosure.
(CVE-2012-1945)

Arthur Gerkis discovered a use-after-free vulnerability while
replacing/inserting a node in a document. If the user were tricked into
opening a specially crafted page, an attacker could possibly exploit this
to cause a denial of service via application crash, or potentially execute
code with the privileges of the user invoking Firefox. (CVE-2012-1946)

Kaspar Brand discovered a vulnerability in how the Network Security
Services (NSS) ASN.1 decoder handles zero length items. If the user were
tricked into opening a specially crafted page, an attacker could possibly
exploit this to cause a denial of service via application crash.
(CVE-2012-0441)

Abhishek Arya discovered two buffer overflow and one use-after-free
vulnerabilities. If the user were tricked into opening a specially crafted
page, an attacker could possibly exploit these to cause a denial of service
via application crash, or potentially execute code with the privileges of
the user invoking Firefox. (CVE-2012-1940, CVE-2012-1941, CVE-2012-1947)

Update instructions:

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following
package versions:

Ubuntu 11.04:
thunderbird 13.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.11.04.1

After a standard system update you need to restart Thunderbird to make
all the necessary changes.

References:
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-1463-6
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-1463-1
https://launchpad.net/bugs/1007556

Package Information:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/thunderbird/13.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.11.04.1

[USN-1463-5] Unity 2D update

========================================================================
Ubuntu Security Notice USN-1463-5
June 27, 2012

unity-2d update
========================================================================

A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:

- Ubuntu 11.04

Summary:

Popup menus were not working in Thunderbird under Unity 2D when started
from the launcher.

Software Description:
- unity-2d: Unity interface for non-accelerated graphics cards

Details:

USN-1463-2 fixed a bug in Unity 2D exposed by a recent Firefox update. It
was discovered that the issue was only partially fixed on Ubuntu 11.04.
When Thunderbird was started from the launcher, Thunderbird was still
unable to obtain pointer grabs under certain conditions. This update fixes
the problem.

Original advisory details:

USN-1463-1 fixed vulnerabilities in Firefox. The Firefox update exposed a
bug in Unity 2D which resulted in Firefox being unable to obtain pointer
grabs in order to open popup menus. This update fixes the problem.

Update instructions:

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following
package versions:

Ubuntu 11.04:
unity-2d-launcher 3.8.4.1-0ubuntu1.2

After a standard system update you need to restart your Unity 2D session to
make all the necessary changes.

References:
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-1463-5
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-1463-1
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-1463-2, https://launchpad.net/bugs/1016386

Package Information:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity-2d/3.8.4.1-0ubuntu1.2

Fedora Board appointment

I am very delighted to announce that John Rose (aka inode0) will be
joining the Fedora Board in the final appointed slot for this cycle
(seat A4). Many of you know John from his work in the Ambassadors team
and his excellent election wrangling for many election cycles, as well
as being a familiar face in FUDCon planning, and his care for
transparency in finances (and transparency in general!). I believe
he'll be a fine addition to the Board, and I look forward to his
contributions and participation.
As John comes on, I'd also like to thank Guillermo Gomez for his work
done over the past year as the Board member who has been in this seat.
You will be missed! :)
A friendly reminder, also, that the Board is always happy to have
community input; please feel welcome to join the Board's mailing list at
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/Advisory-board to ask
questions or participate in discussion.
Welcome, John! :)
-Robyn
_______________________________________________

poppler soname bump in rawhide

Hi,

I plan to rebase poppler in rawhide to poppler-0.20.1 at the end of next
week.
There are several API changes (new functions + 1 move of a private
function to public section) and 1 soname bump (libpoppler.so.25 to
libpoppler.so.26).

Regards

Marek
________________________________

[USN-1463-4] Thunderbird vulnerabilities

Ubuntu Security Notice USN-1463-4
June 22, 2012

thunderbird vulnerabilities
========================================================================

A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:

- Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
- Ubuntu 11.10
- Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

Summary:

Several security issues were fixed in Thunderbird.

Software Description:
- thunderbird: Mozilla Open Source mail and newsgroup client

Details:

USN-1463-1 fixed vulnerabilities in Firefox. This update provides the
corresponding fixes for Thunderbird.

Original advisory details:

Jesse Ruderman, Igor Bukanov, Bill McCloskey, Christian Holler, Andrew
McCreight, Olli Pettay, Boris Zbarsky, and Brian Bondy discovered memory
safety issues affecting Firefox. If the user were tricked into opening a
specially crafted page, an attacker could possibly exploit these to cause a
denial of service via application crash, or potentially execute code with
the privileges of the user invoking Firefox. (CVE-2012-1937, CVE-2012-1938)

It was discovered that Mozilla's WebGL implementation exposed a bug in
certain NVIDIA graphics drivers. The impact of this issue has not been
disclosed at this time. (CVE-2011-3101)

Adam Barth discovered that certain inline event handlers were not being
blocked properly by the Content Security Policy's (CSP) inline-script
blocking feature. Web applications relying on this feature of CSP to
protect against cross-site scripting (XSS) were not fully protected. With
cross-site scripting vulnerabilities, if a user were tricked into viewing a
specially crafted page, a remote attacker could exploit this to modify the
contents, or steal confidential data, within the same domain.
(CVE-2012-1944)

Paul Stone discovered that a viewed HTML page hosted on a Windows or Samba
share could load Windows shortcut files (.lnk) in the same share. These
shortcut files could then link to arbitrary locations on the local file
system of the individual loading the HTML page. An attacker could
potentially use this vulnerability to show the contents of these linked
files or directories in an iframe, resulting in information disclosure.
(CVE-2012-1945)

Arthur Gerkis discovered a use-after-free vulnerability while
replacing/inserting a node in a document. If the user were tricked into
opening a specially crafted page, an attacker could possibly exploit this
to cause a denial of service via application crash, or potentially execute
code with the privileges of the user invoking Firefox. (CVE-2012-1946)

Kaspar Brand discovered a vulnerability in how the Network Security
Services (NSS) ASN.1 decoder handles zero length items. If the user were
tricked into opening a specially crafted page, an attacker could possibly
exploit this to cause a denial of service via application crash.
(CVE-2012-0441)

Abhishek Arya discovered two buffer overflow and one use-after-free
vulnerabilities. If the user were tricked into opening a specially crafted
page, an attacker could possibly exploit these to cause a denial of service
via application crash, or potentially execute code with the privileges of
the user invoking Firefox. (CVE-2012-1940, CVE-2012-1941, CVE-2012-1947)

Update instructions:

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following
package versions:

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS:
thunderbird 13.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.12.04.1

Ubuntu 11.10:
thunderbird 13.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.11.10.1

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS:
thunderbird 13.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.10.04.1

After a standard system update you need to restart Thunderbird to make
all the necessary changes.

References:
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-1463-4
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-1463-1
CVE-2011-3101, CVE-2012-0441, CVE-2012-1937, CVE-2012-1938,
CVE-2012-1940, CVE-2012-1941, CVE-2012-1944, CVE-2012-1945,
CVE-2012-1946, CVE-2012-1947, https://launchpad.net/bugs/1007556

Package Information:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/thunderbird/13.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/thunderbird/13.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.11.10.1
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/thunderbird/13.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.10.04.1

[USN-1463-3] Firefox regressions

==========================================================================
Ubuntu Security Notice USN-1463-3
June 20, 2012

firefox regressions
==========================================================================

A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:

- Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
- Ubuntu 11.10
- Ubuntu 11.04
- Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

Summary:

USN-1463-1 introduced regressions in Firefox.

Software Description:
- firefox: Mozilla Open Source web browser

Details:

USN-1463-1 fixed vulnerabilities in Firefox. The new package caused a
regression in the rendering of Hebrew text and the ability of the Hotmail
inbox to auto-update. This update fixes the problem.

Original advisory details:

Jesse Ruderman, Igor Bukanov, Bill McCloskey, Christian Holler, Andrew
McCreight, Olli Pettay, Boris Zbarsky, and Brian Bondy discovered memory
safety issues affecting Firefox. If the user were tricked into opening a
specially crafted page, an attacker could possibly exploit these to cause a
denial of service via application crash, or potentially execute code with
the privileges of the user invoking Firefox. (CVE-2012-1937, CVE-2012-1938)

It was discovered that Mozilla's WebGL implementation exposed a bug in
certain NVIDIA graphics drivers. The impact of this issue has not been
disclosed at this time. (CVE-2011-3101)

Adam Barth discovered that certain inline event handlers were not being
blocked properly by the Content Security Policy's (CSP) inline-script
blocking feature. Web applications relying on this feature of CSP to
protect against cross-site scripting (XSS) were not fully protected. With
cross-site scripting vulnerabilities, if a user were tricked into viewing a
specially crafted page, a remote attacker could exploit this to modify the
contents, or steal confidential data, within the same domain.
(CVE-2012-1944)

Paul Stone discovered that a viewed HTML page hosted on a Windows or Samba
share could load Windows shortcut files (.lnk) in the same share. These
shortcut files could then link to arbitrary locations on the local file
system of the individual loading the HTML page. An attacker could
potentially use this vulnerability to show the contents of these linked
files or directories in an iframe, resulting in information disclosure.
(CVE-2012-1945)

Arthur Gerkis discovered a use-after-free vulnerability while
replacing/inserting a node in a document. If the user were tricked into
opening a specially crafted page, an attacker could possibly exploit this
to cause a denial of service via application crash, or potentially execute
code with the privileges of the user invoking Firefox. (CVE-2012-1946)

Kaspar Brand discovered a vulnerability in how the Network Security
Services (NSS) ASN.1 decoder handles zero length items. If the user were
tricked into opening a specially crafted page, an attacker could possibly
exploit this to cause a denial of service via application crash.
(CVE-2012-0441)

Abhishek Arya discovered two buffer overflow and one use-after-free
vulnerabilities. If the user were tricked into opening a specially crafted
page, an attacker could possibly exploit these to cause a denial of service
via application crash, or potentially execute code with the privileges of
the user invoking Firefox. (CVE-2012-1940, CVE-2012-1941, CVE-2012-1947)

Update instructions:

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following
package versions:

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS:
firefox 13.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.12.04.1

Ubuntu 11.10:
firefox 13.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.11.10.1

Ubuntu 11.04:
firefox 13.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.11.04.1

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS:
firefox 13.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.10.04.1

After a standard system update you need to restart Firefox to make
all the necessary changes.

References:
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-1463-3
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-1463-1
https://launchpad.net/bugs/1013425

Package Information:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/13.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/13.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.11.10.1
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/13.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.11.04.1
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/13.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.10.04.1

Fedora Board runoff election results

Hello!

The runoff election for the remaining Fedora Board seat has concluded.

There was one remaining seat available. A total of 182 votes were cast,
meaning a candidate could accumulate up to 364 votes (182 * 2). The
results are shown below.

# votes | name
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
214 | Nick Bebout (FAS: nb, IRC: nb)
188 | Robert 'Bob' Jensen (FAS: bjensen, IRC: EvilBob)

Therefore, Nick Bebout will take the remaining Board seat, replacing Jon
Stanley. (Many thanks to Jon for his dedication and time spent with the
Board!)

And with that - I thank everyone for their participation in this
interesting runoff election. News about the remaining appointed Board
seat will be forthcoming in the next few days.

- Robyn
--
announce mailing list
announce@lists.fedoraproject.org
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/announce

[FreeBSD-Announce] FreeBSD Security Advisory FreeBSD-SA-12:04.sysret [REVISED]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

=============================================================================
FreeBSD-SA-12:04.sysret Security Advisory
The FreeBSD Project

Topic: Privilege escalation when returning from kernel

Category: core
Module: sys_amd64
Announced: 2012-06-12
Credits: Rafal Wojtczuk, John Baldwin
Affects: All supported versions of FreeBSD
Corrected: 2012-06-12 12:10:10 UTC (RELENG_7, 7.4-STABLE)
2012-06-12 12:10:10 UTC (RELENG_7_4, 7.4-RELEASE-p9)
2012-06-12 12:10:10 UTC (RELENG_8, 8.3-STABLE)
2012-06-12 12:10:10 UTC (RELENG_8_3, 8.3-RELEASE-p3)
2012-06-12 12:10:10 UTC (RELENG_8_2, 8.2-RELEASE-p9)
2012-06-18 21:00:54 UTC (RELENG_8_1, 8.1-RELEASE-p12)
2012-06-12 12:10:10 UTC (RELENG_9, 9.0-STABLE)
2012-06-12 12:10:10 UTC (RELENG_9_0, 9.0-RELEASE-p3)
CVE Name: CVE-2012-0217

For general information regarding FreeBSD Security Advisories,
including descriptions of the fields above, security branches, and the
following sections, please visit <URL:http://security.FreeBSD.org/>.

0. Revision History

v1.0 2012-06-12 Initial release.
v1.1 2012-06-19 Corrected patch FreeBSD 8.1.

I. Background

The FreeBSD operating system implements a rings model of security, where
privileged operations are done in the kernel, and most applications
request access to these operations by making a system call, which puts
the CPU into the required privilege level and passes control to the
kernel.

II. Problem Description

FreeBSD/amd64 runs on CPUs from different vendors. Due to varying
behaviour of CPUs in 64 bit mode a sanity check of the kernel may be
insufficient when returning from a system call.

III. Impact

Successful exploitation of the problem can lead to local kernel privilege
escalation, kernel data corruption and/or crash.

To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must be able to run code with user
privileges on the target system.

IV. Workaround

No workaround is available.

However FreeBSD/amd64 running on AMD CPUs is not vulnerable to this
particular problem.

Systems with 64 bit capable CPUs, but running the 32 bit FreeBSD/i386
kernel are not vulnerable, nor are systems running on different
processor architectures.

V. Solution

Perform one of the following:

1) Upgrade your vulnerable system to 7-STABLE, 8-STABLE, or 9-STABLE,
or to the RELENG_7_4, RELENG_8_3, RELENG_8_2, RELENG_8_1, or RELENG_9_0
security branch dated after the correction date.

2) To update your vulnerable system via a source code patch:

The following patches have been verified to apply to FreeBSD 7.4,
8.3, 8.2, 8.1 and 9.0 systems.

a) Download the relevant patch from the location below, and verify the
detached PGP signature using your PGP utility.

[7.4, 8.3, 8.2, 9.0]
# fetch http://security.FreeBSD.org/patches/SA-12:04/sysret.patch
# fetch http://security.FreeBSD.org/patches/SA-12:04/sysret.patch.asc

[8.1]
# fetch http://security.FreeBSD.org/patches/SA-12:04/sysret-81.patch
# fetch http://security.FreeBSD.org/patches/SA-12:04/sysret-81.patch.asc

[8.1 if original sysret.patch has been applied]
# fetch http://security.FreeBSD.org/patches/SA-12:04/sysret-81-correction.patch
# fetch http://security.FreeBSD.org/patches/SA-12:04/sysret-81-correction.patch.asc

b) Apply the patch.

# cd /usr/src
# patch < /path/to/patch

c) Recompile your kernel as described in
<URL:http://www.FreeBSD.org/handbook/kernelconfig.html> and reboot the
system.

3) To update your vulnerable system via a binary patch:

Systems running 7.4-RELEASE, 8.3-RELEASE, 8.2-RELEASE, 8.1-RELEASE,
or 9.0-RELEASE on the i386 or amd64 platforms can be updated via the
freebsd-update(8) utility:

# freebsd-update fetch
# freebsd-update install

VI. Correction details

The following list contains the revision numbers of each file that was
corrected in FreeBSD.

CVS:

Branch Revision
Path
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
RELENG_7
src/sys/amd64/amd64/trap.c 1.319.2.14
RELENG_7_4
src/UPDATING 1.507.2.36.2.11
src/sys/conf/newvers.sh 1.72.2.18.2.14
src/sys/amd64/amd64/trap.c 1.319.2.12.2.2
RELENG_8
src/sys/amd64/amd64/trap.c 1.332.2.24
RELENG_8_3
src/UPDATING 1.632.2.26.2.5
src/sys/conf/newvers.sh 1.83.2.15.2.7
src/sys/amd64/amd64/trap.c 1.332.2.21.2.2
RELENG_8_2
src/UPDATING 1.632.2.19.2.11
src/sys/conf/newvers.sh 1.83.2.12.2.14
src/sys/amd64/amd64/trap.c 1.332.2.14.2.2
RELENG_8_1
src/UPDATING 1.632.2.14.2.15
src/sys/conf/newvers.sh 1.83.2.10.2.16
src/sys/amd64/amd64/trap.c 1.332.2.10.2.3
RELENG_9
src/sys/amd64/amd64/trap.c 1.357.2.9
RELENG_9_0
src/UPDATING 1.702.2.4.2.5
src/sys/conf/newvers.sh 1.95.2.4.2.7
src/sys/amd64/amd64/trap.c 1.357.2.2.2.3
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subversion:

Branch/path Revision
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
stable/7/ r236953
releng/7.4/ r236953
stable/8/ r236953
releng/8.3/ r236953
releng/8.2/ r236953
releng/8.1/ r237242
stable/9/ r236953
releng/9.0/ r236953
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------

VII. References

http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2012-0217

The latest revision of this advisory is available at
http://security.FreeBSD.org/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-12:04.sysret.asc
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9

iEYEARECAAYFAk/gjHQACgkQFdaIBMps37KutQCgkcp+lqFuJ3/fQKUemn80suW5
u/wAn2VLxY5LoUPNsN2eUHYB4GMz0AHl
=tQOk
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
_______________________________________________
freebsd-announce@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-announce
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-announce-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"

[FreeBSD-Announce] Foundation Announces Capsicum Project!

Dear FreeBSD Community,

The FreeBSD Foundation is pleased to announce that Pawel Jakub
Dawidek has been awarded a grant to develop a comprehensive
userspace framework for writing Capsicum-based applications,
building on the kernel features originally developed by the University
of Cambridge and Google Research.

This framework will include a Capsicum runtime linker and component
library providing sandboxed versions of key higher-level system libraries.
Components will both be sandboxed, improving resistance to vulnerabilities,
and also easily available for delegation to sandboxed applications, such
as the Chromium web browser. The prototype libcapsicum developed by
Cambridge will be analyzed and updated based on lessons learned in
implementing Capsicumised software packages, such as hastd and auditdistd.
Funding for this project will be provided by the FreeBSD Foundation matched
100% by the Google Open Source Program Office, in support of open source
technology transition of Capsicum.

"A continuing challenge in security is to find solutions that not only
fix the problems but also can be applied to existing technologies:
attractive though the notion is, we are not going to persuade the
world to rewrite everything! This is why we at Google are pleased and
excited to support the continuing development of Capsicum, which
radically improves the security of UNIX based systems whilst allowing
a continuous migration path from today's mechanisms to tomorrow's,"
said Ben Laurie, Google Senior Staff Software Engineer.

"I'm very excited to be able to work on Capsicum. Some of my software is
already
using Capsicum, so I'm fully aware of the great potential of this
framework.
This technology is so much superior than the current attempts to provide
sandboxing using tools like chroot(2) or unprivileged user credentials.
No matter how corny it sounds, I strongly believe Capsicum can make the
Internet a safer place." said Pawel.

This project will conclude in August, 2012

The FreeBSD Foundation

_______________________________________________
freebsd-announce@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-announce
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-announce-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"