Awesome work everyone! Just now I noticed an important key point that may
has slipped through:

Built into the "genes" of every project is that we (the ASF) make software
for the public good, at no charge and free to use for everyone.

--
Sent from my phone. Typos are a kind gift to anyone who happens to find
them.

On Fri, Jan 7, 2022, 18:23 Jacques Le Roux <[email protected]>
wrote:

> Very good work indeed (I followed it closely), thanks to all the
> participants.
>
> Phil's remarks is right to the point!
>
> Jacques
>
> Le 07/01/2022 à 17:10, Phil Steitz a écrit :
> > This looks really good to me.  Many thanks to those who contributed to
> the content.  I have one comment that does not need to be reflected in the
> > doc, but which may come up in discussion.  I agree strongly with the
> basic point that system owners need to take accountability for knowing what
> > they are running, what is critical and what needs to be upgraded.  We
> need to be careful though about people forming the mental picture of all of
> > the vulnerable running software as monolithically compiled applications
> that "contain" components like manufactured goods contain fabricated
> parts.
> > Most actual "systems" today leverage distributed components that "system
> owners" don't directly build or control.  That does not change anything in
> > terms of accountability, but it it does makes the problem a little
> harder for system owners as vulnerability extends in many cases beyond
> direct
> > control or ability to patch.
> >
> > On 1/7/22 7:05 AM, Mark J Cox wrote:
> >> Since the pre-meeting we've been updating the Position Paper (so if you'
> >> not been 'watching' it on the wiki please take another look and comment
> >> here).  We're likely to submit this in the next few hours and it'll be
> sent
> >> to all the delegates attending the meeting in advance.  We've also been
> >> informed the meeting is now hybrid, with one in-person representative
> and
> >> up to two remote and we've adjusted our plans to match that.
> >>
> >> https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/COMDEV/Position+Paper
> >>
> >> Regards, Mark J Cox
> >> ASF Security
> >>
> >>
> >> On Thu, Jan 6, 2022 at 3:40 PM Sam Ruby <[email protected]> wrote:
> >>
> >>> I added much of this text.  Feel free to adjust as you see fit.
> >>>
> >>> - Sam Ruby
> >>>
> >>> On Thu, Jan 6, 2022 at 10:07 AM Mark Thomas <[email protected]> wrote:
> >>>> Some ideas that we might want to weave into the existing text:
> >>>>
> >>>> In the critical components bullet:
> >>>>
> >>>> - the owner of a system is best placed to determine the criticality
> >>>>     of that system and the degree to which individual components
> >>>>     contribute to that criticality
> >>>>
> >>>> - Criticality depends on usage. We need to avoid solutions that create
> >>>>     burdens for all system owners using a software component when the
> >>>>     component is only critical for some systems.
> >>>>
> >>>> In the speed of rolling out updates bullet:
> >>>>
> >>>> - Referencing papers such as [1]. I don't think we could do enough to
> >>>>     emphasis importance of the last sentence in the abstract:
> >>>>     "We also find that a typical zero-day attack lasts 312 days on
> average
> >>>>      and that, after vulnerabilities are disclosed publicly, the
> volume of
> >>>>      attacks exploiting them increases by up to 5 orders of
> magnitude."
> >>>>     We need to find a way to get this meeting to focus on the 99.999%
> part
> >>>>     of the problem and not on the 0.001% part.
> >>>>     Now, I am playing a little fast and loose with the statistics
> since
> >>>>     "volume of attacks" != "volume of successful attacks" and attacks
> >>>>     should become less successful over time as more system owners
> patch
> >>>>     but, the volume increases for a reason.
> >>>>
> >>>> - This is a really hard problem to solve. Like with criticality,
> whether
> >>>>     a system is exposed to a particular vulnerability depends on
> usage. We
> >>>>     don't want to introduce something that impacts all systems when
> only
> >>>>     some are vulnerable.
> >>>>
> >>>> - Adding automatic update checks could work for products but not
> >>>>     libraries. Even then there are plenty of system owners (including
> most
> >>>>     of the US Federal Government) who don't want their software
> phoning
> >>>>     home for any reason.
> >>>>
> >>>> - Logging regular warnings once the software reaches a certain age
> >>>>     requires assumptions to be made in terms of expose to
> vulnerabilities
> >>>>     that are likely to be wrong for a reasonable proportion of
> systems.
> >>>>     And, again, is only really workable for products.
> >>>>
> >>>> - The most viable approach I can think of is to incentivize system
> >>>>     owners to ensure that they are not exposed to vulnerabilities via
> >>>>     using a product within their system:
> >>>>     a) with known vulnerabilities;
> >>>>     b) that has no established process for handling vulnerability
> reports
> >>>>        and publishing details of confirmed vulnerabilities; and/or
> >>>>     c) has reached End of Life
> >>>>     without effective mitigation for the associated security risks.
> >>>>     I think the incentive has to be some form of liability (civil
> and/or
> >>>>     criminal) if a system owner does any of the above.
> >>>>     Such liability may already exist [2]. Expanding the funding of the
> >>>>     organizations tasked with enforcement in one possible option.
> >>>>
> >>>> Mark
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> [1] https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2382196.2382284
> >>>> [2] https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/05/ftc-legal-action-log4j/
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On 05/01/2022 23:30, Sam Ruby wrote:
> >>>>> On Wed, Jan 5, 2022 at 5:54 PM David Nalley <[email protected]> wrote:
> >>>>>> We discussed the prebrief doc that's going out over the weekend. Our
> >>>>>> submission (if any) is due by EoD Friday, EST.
> >>>>> Observing what has worked and what hasn't worked in the past, and not
> >>>>> being aware of any "silver bullets" that solve the issues that we
> >>>>> face, I'm wondering if we should instead share our experiences on
> what
> >>>>> worked and what didn't work so well in the past.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Two things in particular we need to address:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> * Our position that our contributors are volunteers, while correct,
> is
> >>>>> confusing and counter productive.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> * Intentionally or otherwise, we are being treated as a company, and
> >>>>> one that is somehow more problematic than the other companies who
> >>>>> produce software.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> I've drafted a position paper which attempts to draw the comparison
> >>>>> between the ASF and standards organizations.  Like all analogies, it
> >>>>> is deeply flawed.  The question is whether it is more useful than the
> >>>>> approaches we have tried to date.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> It is just a draft.  If it doesn't resonate with others, it can be
> >>>>> discarded.  If it has any redeemable value, it is on a wiki and can
> be
> >>>>> improved:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/COMDEV/Position+Paper
> >>>>>
> >>>>> My hope is that the result is more approachable and makes the
> >>>>> connections between our experiences and our positions clearer. It
> also
> >>>>> provides a graceful way for us to say "yes, but" to ideas such as
> >>>>> identifying critical components.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> - Sam Ruby
> >>>>>
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