website/blog/systemd_insecurity.html

97 lines
5.0 KiB
HTML
Raw Normal View History

<!DOCTYPE html>
<!-- Inferencium - Website - Blog - #1 -->
<!-- Version: 5.0.2 -->
<!-- Copyright 2022 Jake Winters -->
<!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause -->
2023-11-16 16:01:42 +00:00
<html lang="en">
2023-06-23 00:35:16 +01:00
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"/>
2023-11-16 16:52:21 +00:00
<link rel="stylesheet" href="../main.css"/>
<title>Inferencium - Blog - systemd Insecurity</title>
2023-06-23 00:35:16 +01:00
</head>
<body>
<nav class="nav-bar">
<div><a href="../index.html"><img src="../asset/img/logo-inferencium-no_text.png" width="110px" height="110px"/></a></div>
<div><a href="../index.html" class="title">Inferencium</a></div>
2023-10-30 23:11:20 +00:00
<div><a href="../about.html">About</a></div>
<div><a href="../contact.html">Contact</a></div>
<div><a href="../blog.html">Blog</a></div>
<div><a href="../documentation.html">Documentation</a></div>
<div><a href="../source.html">Source</a></div>
<div><a href="../key.html">Key</a></div>
<div><a href="../changelog.html">Changelog</a></div>
2023-11-16 15:19:34 +00:00
</nav>
2023-06-23 00:35:16 +01:00
<h1>Blog - #1</h1>
<h2>systemd Insecurity</h2>
<p class="update_date">Posted: 2022-01-29 (UTC+00:00)</p>
<p class="update_date">Updated: 2023-10-31 (UTC+00:00)</p>
<nav id="toc">
2023-09-02 14:22:13 +01:00
<h2 id="toc"><a href="#toc">Table of Contents<a/></h2>
2023-06-23 18:29:16 +01:00
<ul>
<li><a href="#issue-0">Issue #0 - Against CVE Assignment</a></li>
<li><a href="#issue-1">Issue #1 - CVEs Are Not Useful</a></li>
<li><a href="#issue-2">Issue #2 - Security is a Circus</a></li>
<li><a href="#issue-3">Issue #3 - Blaming the User</a></li>
2023-06-23 18:29:16 +01:00
</ul>
</nav>
2023-10-31 02:51:29 +00:00
<p>Anyone who cares about security may want to switch from systemd as soon as possible;
its lead developer doesn't care about your security at all.</p>
<section id="issue-0">
<h2 id="issue-0"><a href="#issue-0">Issue #0 - Against CVE Assignment</a></h2>
2023-10-31 02:51:29 +00:00
<blockquote>"You don't assign CVEs to every single random bugfix we do, do
you?"</blockquote>
2023-06-23 18:29:16 +01:00
<p>- Lennart Poettering, systemd lead developer</p>
2023-10-31 02:57:38 +00:00
<p><b>My thoughts:</b> Yes, if they're security-related.</p>
2023-10-31 02:51:29 +00:00
<p>Source:
2023-09-02 14:22:13 +01:00
<a href="https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/5998#issuecomment-303782334">systemd GitHub Issue 5998</a></p>
2023-06-23 18:29:16 +01:00
</section>
<section id="issue-1">
<h2 id="issue-1"><a href="#issue-1">Issue #1 - CVEs Are Not Useful</a></h2>
2023-10-31 02:51:29 +00:00
<blockquote>"Humpf, I am not convinced this is the right way to announce this.
We never did that, and half the CVEs aren't useful anyway, hence I am not sure
we should start with that now, because it is either inherently incomplete or
blesses the nonsensical part of the CVE circus which we really shouldn't
2023-06-23 18:29:16 +01:00
bless..."</blockquote>
<p>- Lennart Poettering, systemd lead developer</p>
2023-10-31 02:57:38 +00:00
<p><b>My thoughts:</b> CVEs are supposed to be for security, and a log of when they
2023-10-31 02:54:52 +00:00
were found and their severity, so yes, it <em>is</em> the correct way to
announce it. It seems as if over 95 security-concious people think the same.</p>
2023-10-31 02:51:29 +00:00
<p>Source:
2023-09-02 14:22:13 +01:00
<a href="https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/6225#issuecomment-311739869">systemd GitHub Issue 6225</a></p>
2023-06-23 18:29:16 +01:00
</section>
<section id="issue-2">
<h2 id="issue-2"><a href="#issue-2">Issue #2 - Security is a Circus</a></h2>
2023-10-31 02:51:29 +00:00
<blockquote>"I am not sure I buy enough into the security circus to do that
though for any minor issue..."</blockquote>
2023-06-23 18:29:16 +01:00
<p>- Lennart Poettering, systemd lead developer</p>
2023-10-31 02:51:29 +00:00
<p>Source:
2023-09-02 14:22:13 +01:00
<a href="https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/5144#issuecomment-276740654">systemd GitHub Issue 5144</a></p>
2023-06-23 18:29:16 +01:00
</section>
<section id="issue-3">
<h2 id="issue-3"><a href="#issue-3">Issue #3 - Blaming the User</a></h2>
2023-10-31 02:51:29 +00:00
<blockquote>"Yes, as you found out "0day" is not a valid username. I wonder
which tool permitted you to create it in the first place. Note that not
permitting numeric first characters is done on purpose: to avoid ambiguities
between numeric UID and textual user names.<br>
2023-06-23 18:29:16 +01:00
<br>
2023-10-31 02:51:29 +00:00
systemd will validate all configuration data you drop at it, making it hard to
generate invalid configuration. Hence, yes, it's a feature that we don't permit
invalid user names, and I'd consider it a limitation of xinetd that it doesn't
refuse an invalid username.<br>
2023-06-23 18:29:16 +01:00
<br>
2023-10-31 02:51:29 +00:00
So, yeah, I don't think there's anything to fix in systemd here. I understand
this is annoying, but still: the username is clearly not valid."</blockquote>
2023-06-23 18:29:16 +01:00
<p>- Lennart Poettering, systemd lead developer</p>
2023-10-31 02:57:38 +00:00
<p><b>My thoughts:</b> systemd was the thing that allowed root access just because a
2023-10-31 02:51:29 +00:00
username started with a number, then Poettering blamed the user.</p>
<p>Source:
2023-09-02 14:22:13 +01:00
<a href="https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/6237#issuecomment-311900864">systemd GitHub Issue 6237</a></p>
2023-06-23 18:29:16 +01:00
</section>
2023-06-23 00:35:16 +01:00
</body>
</html>