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There's no real leadership in Linux as far as security goes from within the kernel community itself. I'm beginning to get the impression this (in general, not
by forgottenpass 11y ago
There's no real leadership in Linux as far as security goes from within the kernel community itself.
I'm beginning to get the impression this (in general, not just for Linux) is because the talented security folks rather just do the fun parts. It'd be really awesome if more security conscious people were like the OpenBSD developers and worked on products, not just security.
I got into software through security. Getting a dump of my high school's faculty and staff password database was my first high and I chased it for years. My current job is in engineering where security is part of, but not all of, my focus. Since taking on this role, I've started feeling alienated participating in the "security community."
Work isn't always fun in the moment, work is sometimes just work. There seems to be a gap between how much work the "security community" wants to be able to push on the rest of the open source developer's plate, and how much those developers are willing to take. Security already (rightly) gets a shortcut over a lot of things, but it takes man-hours to make security happen.
Why can't it be the security guys? If spender doesn't want to send his kernel patches through the same review and legal processes the rest of us do, that's his problem. Why doesn't he stand up and become that security leadership in the kernel? Of course the submission process could be better, and of course he's not going to get everything he wants from the other maintainers right away... because it's work, and work isn't always fun.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- gozo 11y agoTalented security folks, especially those that can engineer security rather than penetration testing, have so many opportunities that fighting an uphill battle on mailing lists just isn't very attractive.
- forgottenpass 11y agoThat's part of my point. As long as the work is "someone else's problem," will it ever get done? If other opportunities are there for someone with a security skillet, what makes a libfoo maintainer become skilled enough to make the most secure libfoo possible, but also stay on libfoo? Does saying "security is important" mean that security is important, or does it means "have my skillset, and also do the busywork someone with my skillset is able and happy to ignore?"