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On Tuesday 23 January 2007 12:07, Neil Bothwick wrote: |
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> On Mon, 22 Jan 2007 18:12:07 -0800 (PST), Eric Bohn wrote: |
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> > Using Portage you're putting yourself at the mercy of any Joe Schmoe |
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> > with a proxy connection to a Gentoo server that wants to compromise |
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> > your machine. |
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> |
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> How so? They'd have to get a compromised source tarball on the distfiles |
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> mirrors and a hacked ebuild into the CVS tree. Getting a hacked ebuild |
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> on the servers isn't enough, it would be replaced in no more than fifteen |
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> minutes. |
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> |
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> Why is this easier than getting a compromised RPM onto a Red Hat or SUSE |
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> server? |
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If you're *really* paranoid rsync twice (with a different mirror each time) |
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then diff the package you intend to install to see if there's any suspect |
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ebuilds. Ditto for distfiles. If in doubt compare gpg/MD5 sums with |
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sourceforge, or the package developer's website/ftp server. Of course, you |
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could repeat three times over and see if there's a discrepancy with the diff |
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comparison. I mean, how much time have you available? If you can script and |
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you're managing a critical server for the MOD, or NASA, or what not, then you |
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could probably automate the whole process and include random selections of |
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servers. |
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|
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If you go back 2-3 years I remember there was a compromise of some Gentoo |
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mirrors and we were all reinstalling afresh. I can't remember what the |
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systemic weakness was, or if/how it was fixed - you may be able to dig |
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something up from the Gmane archives. |
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Some times I feel quite relieved that I only manage a couple of boxen in my |
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spare room. :) |
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-- |
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Regards, |
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Mick |
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