On Sunday 30 September 2007 08:09, Landon Fuller wrote: > On Sep 29, 2007, at 10:38 PM, Ross Boylan wrote: > > I would like to encrypt my backups on disk, but am concerned that > > doing > > so relies on openssl and that may create problems down the line. > > Could > > anyone clarify if it will? What's the best thing to do (which > > might be > > avoiding encryption)? > > > > I realize that 100% certainty is unlikely; I'll settle for less! > > > > Details: > > > > I use bacula on Debian, and it has disabled openssl support because of > > licensing problems (e.g., thread beginning > > http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2007/07/msg00144.html, also the > > "catch-22 thread" on this list in June). I am interested in > > encrypting > > backups. I don't actually care about encrypting communication on the > > wire, but from what I can tell either feature uses openssl. > > > > Does on-disk encryption depend on openssl? > > No -- it uses portable DER-encoded ASN.1 format, with RSA and AES > encryption. It should be possible (and indeed, such was the intent) > to decrypt these backups with any full-featured crypto library. > > > Apparently some people have been working on getting bacula to work > > with > > GNUTLS, but Kern's plan is to relicense the sources so they can > > continue > > to work with openssl. (I'm a little surprised the latter is possible > > given that FSF is administering? holding? the license.). But it > > sounds > > as if a transition to TLS is possible, maybe done by downstream > > packagers (e.g., Debian). > > As I understand it, Kern removed all third party GPL'd code, and has > (or will be) re-licensing it to allow linking against OpenSSL, thus > negating the licensing issue.
Correct, and the FSFE has no problems with adding an OpenSSL exception to the current GPLv2 license. I'm working with them and Debian to get the wording of the exception in a form acceptable to everyone. Kern > > -landonf ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse0120000070mrt/direct/01/ _______________________________________________ Bacula-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-devel
