It's easy for us on this side to Monday morning quarterback and say "oh
make it so". There are times too that I go...okay ...come on ...how
many days has it taken for that to get fixed? But then again, I don't
write code, I don't track back dependencies, I don't ensure umpteem
languages still work and all the other interconnectivity between
programs and code still function.
It's easy to say this stuff on this side.... but understand that the
mere release of a beta patch puts in jeopardy all of the consumer home
machines and small businesses that have no admin to protect them and
take mitigation measures.
What "I" really learned from this is to decide my "OWN" risk tolerance
and stop listening to all the sites and blogs and news reports and what
not that spread a lot of FUD and misinformation and used this many times
as a PR vehicle. Only I know what risk I will tolerate. That's what I
learned from this.
Susan
Gadi Evron wrote:
Susan Bradley, CPA aka Ebitz - SBS Rocks [MVP] wrote:
Don't release a beta patch ....
1. it would get patches into reverse engineering faster [hello look
what happened to the leaked patch]
and 2.
Don't ask for an untested patch if you are not willing to be there in
the newsgroups, communities and listserves helping the dead bodies
after a bad patch sir.
Do you do/handle change management in your firm? Even in my small
firm I could not handle the 'any time/any day' that patches used to
come out before.
Be careful of what you ask for sir...because if you get what you
want.... ensure your firm has the resources to test/deploy/change
management on a 24 hours a day 7 days a week schedule because
exploits can be built in less than 20 minutes.
If the security issue has been responsible disclosed, there is a
process that is needed to build a patch and test the patch. Some
issues take more than 'days' sir. And testing takes time as well, sir.
For my community I want tested patches sir, and I will argue until
doomsday on that point. Don't hurt my community with a bad patch or
a beta patch, sir.
I quite agree, I disagree on the amount of time it currently takes for
any vendor to release patches. Apparently we "Got used" to slowness,
false positives and many other ills. Maybe it's time that changed?
Gadi.
--
Letting your vendors set your risk analysis these days?
http://www.threatcode.com
_______________________________________________
Full-Disclosure - We believe in it.
Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html
Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/