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The Linux kernel project becomes a CVE numbering authority

77 points| corbet | 2 years ago |lwn.net

24 comments

order

em-bee|2 years ago

after the curl announcement i pretty much saw this one coming.

as i commented there: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39054152

noone should ever be able to file a CVE without the product owner having a say in this.

filing a CVE should always include the party that is responsible for the vulnerability with proper checks and balances.

the current process allows accusing someone without the accused having any ability to defend themselves. it was created with the expectations that only security experts who know what they are doing will file CVEs. that expectation has not held.

this is pretty much why linus torvalds refused to announce when they fix security issues in the linux kernel.

philipwhiuk|2 years ago

> noone should ever be able to file a CVE without the product owner having a say in this.

That's a really stupid idea. CVEs track security vulnerabilities, not 'security vulnerabilities the product owner is prepared to admit to'.

Imagine if Cisco decided they were going to be the CNA for Cisco devices just weren't going to issue any CVEs for any vulnerabilities in any Cisco devices, regardless of whether they're exploited or not.

egberts1|2 years ago

"No CVEs will be assigned for unfixed security issues in the Linux kernel, assignment will only happen after a fix is available as it can be properly tracked that way by the git commit id of the original fix."

Linus Torvalds: "A bug is a bug."

As a kernel developer of ATM driver, I couldn't careless if there is a bug, much less some public authority (t)outing my driver as buggy. They'll get fixed, unit-tested, and real-world live-tested for the next release.

philipwhiuk|2 years ago

Every bugfix in the kernel is now a CVE. That's awful.

Every unfixed security issue is now no longer assigned a CVE until it's fixed. That's even worse.

worthless-trash|2 years ago

This will be interesting, if another linux vendor assigns a CVE and upstream duplicates the older CVE usually takes presedence, and they need to mark it as a duplicate, more houskeeping than just assigning it when they know about it.

I'm glad the LK finally has come to this conclusion, I dont care if it ends up exploding and using a lot of CVE's..

Good Work.

blibble|2 years ago

time for security researchers to drop CVEs and a start new scheme?

how about: CVF

corbet|2 years ago

Just in case anybody is wondering if this is significant...think about the implications of tens of thousands of CVE numbers being assigned for every stable kernel patch. There will have to be changes in the ways people are dealing with these.

philipwhiuk|2 years ago

The linux CNA will just mean 'bug' and it will be impossible to know how severe any of them are.

peanut-walrus|2 years ago

So because the cve system has a few problems that annoy the kernel developers they decided an appropriate response is to completely sabotage it?

Mature, you guys.