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Message-Id: <c745f28a-d357-4a9e-b4c4-6c9647b0ba36@www.fastmail.com>
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 2021 10:37:52 -0600
From: "Jeremy Soller" <jeremy@...tem76.com>
To: oss-security@...ts.openwall.com
Subject: Re: Pop!_OS Membership to linux-distros list

Hello Alexander,

I'm keeping this in mind. We may hire someone to handle this task, and I will get back to you when we do.

Thanks,

-- 
  Jeremy Soller
  System76
  Principal Engineer
  jeremy@...tem76.com

On Tue, Aug 17, 2021, at 6:31 AM, Solar Designer wrote:
> Hi Jeremy,
> 
> I'm sorry about the delay.  I was hoping someone else would chime in.
> 
> On Wed, Aug 04, 2021 at 09:59:02AM -0600, Jeremy Soller wrote:
> > On Tue, Jul 27, 2021, at 11:59 AM, Solar Designer wrote:
> > > On Tue, Jul 20, 2021 at 02:23:26PM -0600, Jeremy Soller wrote:
> > > > Over the history of Pop!_OS, dating back to 2017, we have maintained critical
> > > > packages and applied security patches soon after they are made public. Our
> > > > membership to this list would significantly help our users stay secure by
> > > > allowing us to prepare and test security updates ahead of public disclosure.
> > > > Please see our GitHub organization for more evidence: https://github.com/pop-os
> > > 
> > > I think it'd be most convincing for us all to see specific examples of
> > > you having "applied security patches soon after they are made public",
> > > with dates public vs. fixed in Pop!_OS.
> > 
> > How many examples should I provide? The last security patch I did was for
> > systemd. We have patches on systemd which means we cannot use the Ubuntu
> > version directly, so when, for example, CVE-2020-13529 and CVE-2021-33910
> > patches arrived in Ubuntu 21.04 on July 20, 2021, I applied them to our own
> > fork of systemd for Pop!_OS 21.04 that same day:
> > 
> > - https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/247.3-3ubuntu3.4
> > - https://github.com/pop-os/systemd/commit/bf008f836b8740f6634d02526d1f38c98fa6699a
> > 
> > Pop!_OS needs to participate in linux-distros to ensure we have patches ready
> > for our forks of packages that do not come straight from Ubuntu. I listed the
> > relevant packages in my original email, many of which we have had to do
> > security updates for after some embargo lifts, with very little time to prepare.
> 
> There's no specific requirement on the number of examples.  The above
> looks reasonable to me.
> 
> > > > 7. Be able and willing to contribute back (see above), preferably in specific
> > > > ways announced in advance (so that you're responsible for a specific area and
> > > > so that we know what to expect from which member), and demonstrate actual
> > > > contributions once you've been a member for a while
> > > > 
> > > > I am able and willing to contribute back.
> > > 
> > > Please choose a specific task (or several).
> > > 
> > > I suggest the statistics task:
> > > 
> > > "13. Keep track of per-report and per-issue handling and disclosure
> > > timelines (at least times of notification of the private list and of
> > > actual public disclosure), at regular intervals produce and share
> > > statistics (most notably, the average embargo duration) as well as the
> > > raw data (except on issues that are still under embargo) by posting to
> > > oss-security - primary: Amazon, backup: Gentoo"
> > > 
> > > As you can see, it is currently assigned to Amazon and Gentoo, but as
> > > far as I can see neither is actually handling it now, so I'd like to
> > > formally unassign it from them and have another distro handle it.
> > 
> > That would be fine, but I would be curious if there is some reason they have
> > not been fulfilling this task.
> 
> I cannot speak for them, but the task does require some effort on every
> issue, and perhaps the specific people are just not putting the effort.
> As you can see, this was different in 2017-2019 when Gentoo had a person
> actually working on this task.
> 
> Besides statistics per se, an important desirable side-effect of working
> on this task is that you'd end up double-checking that every issue does
> in fact get reported to oss-security.
>  
> > > > 9. Have someone already on the private list, or at least someone else who has
> > > > been active on oss-security for years but is not affiliated with your distro
> > > > nor your organization, vouch for at least one of the people requesting
> > > > membership on behalf of your distro (then that one vouched-for person will be
> > > > able to vouch for others on your team, in case you'd like multiple people
> > > > subscribed)
> > > > 
> > > > I do not know if I have contacts that are already on the linux-distros list.
> > > 
> > > It can also be "someone else who has been active on oss-security for
> > > years but is not affiliated".  Anyone?
> > 
> > I believe Tyler Hicks is willing to do this.
> 
> Like he says, he'd "be a lot more comfortable if someone could provide a
> stronger vouch."
> 
> However, overall I think Pop!_OS and you personally (also considering
> your work on Redox OS) do meet the requirements.  So let's proceed with
> the subscription.  Please e-mail me off-list with your e-mail address
> and PGP key to use.  Please also confirm in this thread that we're
> getting the statistics task assigned to you, and we can discuss some
> specifics on what's to be done on it.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Alexander
> 

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