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There's no law that you have to fix all bug reports. Isn't it better for users and developers alike that they can see the problems of the project. If they don't

There's no law that you have to fix all bug reports. Isn't it better for users and developers alike that they can see the problems of the project. If they don't have resources that's fine, it's not like they are charging money for their product. But why not be honest and not request people sweep bugs under the rug for fear of looking bad?

awakeasleep 11mo ago
Because it burns out developers and ruins the project. Its like how the treatment can be worse than the disease in medicine. The CVEs get reported, then big corps automated systems start flagging all use of ffmpeg, the big corp security software stops builds and removes it from dev laptops, then frustrated big corp engineers start harassing the volunteers and soon its not worth volunteering anymore, and the project dies, and there was never a real world impact.
- ndiddy 11mo ago
  My point of view is that the unpaid ffmpeg maintainers should stop playing along with the corporate "security researchers" and not prioritize a bug over everything else simply because it's a CVE. In this case, the "high priority CVE" is from a reverse-engineered codec a hobbyist wrote to decode video from 1990s LucasArts video games. I think it's unreasonable to expect the maintainers to drop everything to fix a bug in a codec that most people will never use. If the trillion-dollar companies sending AI-generated CVE reports care so strongly about getting them fixed ASAP, they should really be fixing them themselves.
  - estimator7292 11mo ago
    You're completely missing the point. The problem isn't that volunteer devs are harassed into work. The problem is being harassed. Whether or not you "care" or feel the need to do any work or accept responsibility, constant harassment will destroy anyone, even you.
    - ndiddy 11mo ago
      My hope is that if they started responding to CVE bug reports for hobby codecs with something like “This is a codec written by someone in his free time and intended to be used for preservation purposes. We do not support using this codec with untrusted input and may not implement a fix for this bug within the 90 day CVE timeline”, it would stop the harassment. The companies doing the CVE spam would either have to start fixing things themselves, contract someone to do so, or stop using ffmpeg due to all the scary CVEs getting flagged in whatever bullshit security compliance standard they use.
      - phil21 11mo ago
        It would not stop the harassment at all. These reports are effectively free for the originating organization to write using AI - and some low level junior looking for promotion within said org will be highly motivated to pump those metrics up come review time. You’d have to basically blacklist these orgs from all bug reports and maybe open it up to a select few known trusted senior resources that care more about their personal reputation within the community vs. corporate politics.
    - bawolff 11mo ago
      Getting a polite bug report is not being harrased.
      - x0x0 11mo ago
        Fix it or we publish exploit code is not far off.
        nradov 11mo ago
        So let them publish exploit code. What's the problem?
        bawolff 11mo ago
        Well either you care about security or you don't. If you don't then your users should have the right know, so they can decide for themselves whether or not the risk is worth it. Do you think that just because a project doesn't disclose something it goes away, or that if google can find the bug that much better funded groups like the NSA or malware vendors can't. Shoving things under the rug is the worst outcome.
eviks 11mo ago
There is no law you can't complain about lack of help on Twitter Also, could you quote the request to sweep bugs under the rug? The main ask seems to be "send patches" later in the thread

awakeasleep 11mo ago

Because it burns out developers and ruins the project. Its like how the treatment can be worse than the disease in medicine. The CVEs get reported, then big corps automated systems start flagging all use of ffmpeg, the big corp security software stops builds and removes it from dev laptops, then frustrated big corp engineers start harassing the volunteers and soon its not worth volunteering anymore, and the project dies, and there was never a real world impact.

ndiddy 11mo ago
My point of view is that the unpaid ffmpeg maintainers should stop playing along with the corporate "security researchers" and not prioritize a bug over everything else simply because it's a CVE. In this case, the "high priority CVE" is from a reverse-engineered codec a hobbyist wrote to decode video from 1990s LucasArts video games. I think it's unreasonable to expect the maintainers to drop everything to fix a bug in a codec that most people will never use. If the trillion-dollar companies sending AI-generated CVE reports care so strongly about getting them fixed ASAP, they should really be fixing them themselves.
- estimator7292 11mo ago
  You're completely missing the point. The problem isn't that volunteer devs are harassed into work. The problem is being harassed. Whether or not you "care" or feel the need to do any work or accept responsibility, constant harassment will destroy anyone, even you.
  - ndiddy 11mo ago
    My hope is that if they started responding to CVE bug reports for hobby codecs with something like “This is a codec written by someone in his free time and intended to be used for preservation purposes. We do not support using this codec with untrusted input and may not implement a fix for this bug within the 90 day CVE timeline”, it would stop the harassment. The companies doing the CVE spam would either have to start fixing things themselves, contract someone to do so, or stop using ffmpeg due to all the scary CVEs getting flagged in whatever bullshit security compliance standard they use.
    - phil21 11mo ago
      It would not stop the harassment at all. These reports are effectively free for the originating organization to write using AI - and some low level junior looking for promotion within said org will be highly motivated to pump those metrics up come review time. You’d have to basically blacklist these orgs from all bug reports and maybe open it up to a select few known trusted senior resources that care more about their personal reputation within the community vs. corporate politics.
  - bawolff 11mo ago
    Getting a polite bug report is not being harrased.
    - x0x0 11mo ago
      Fix it or we publish exploit code is not far off.
      - nradov 11mo ago
        So let them publish exploit code. What's the problem?
      - bawolff 11mo ago
        Well either you care about security or you don't. If you don't then your users should have the right know, so they can decide for themselves whether or not the risk is worth it. Do you think that just because a project doesn't disclose something it goes away, or that if google can find the bug that much better funded groups like the NSA or malware vendors can't. Shoving things under the rug is the worst outcome.

eviks 11mo ago

There is no law you can't complain about lack of help on Twitter Also, could you quote the request to sweep bugs under the rug? The main ask seems to be "send patches" later in the thread