Re: Security related tooling project

[Christopher Baines]

Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> writes:

> Hello Chris!
>
> Christopher Baines <mail@cbaines.net> skribis:
>
>> In May last year (2020), I submitted an application to NLNet. The work I
>> set out wasn't something I was doing at the time, but something I hadn't
>> yet found time to work on, tooling specifically around security issues.
>>
>> The application got a bit lost, probably somewhat down to email issues
>> on my end. Anyway, things picked up again in February of this year
>> (2021), and this is now something I'm looking to do roughly over the
>> next 8 months.
>
> I’m late to the party, but I think this is excellent news!  Well done!
>
>> 1: https://git.cbaines.net/guix/tooling-to-improve-security-and-trust/about/
>
> [...]
n>
>> In terms of looking at security from a project perspective, I'm thinking
>> about these kinds of needs/questions:
>>
>>  - What security issues affect this revision of Guix? (latest or otherwise)
>>
>>  - How do Guix contributors find out about new security issues that
>>    affect Guix revisions they're interested in?
>>
>> From the user perspective, I want to look at things like:
>>
>>  - How do I find out what (if any) security issues affect the software
>>    I'm currently running (through Guix)?
>>
>>  - How can I get notified when a new security issue affects the software
>>    I'm currently running (through Guix)?
>
> That sounds like a great plan!
>
> I see several “intermediate” issues that would be super helpful for the
> overall project, such as better CPE matching as Léo suggested and/or
> providing CPE suggestions: <https://issues.guix.gnu.org/42299>.
>
> I think the Data Service is in a great position to help out
> wrt. monitoring.  I think it’d be nice to architect things in a way that
> services enhance monitoring, but are not required for get proper
> monitoring.  For instance, the proposed ‘guix health’¹ can be
> implemented without relying on intermediate services at all (it still
> needs to rely on the NIST server, of course, but we don’t need extra
> services.)
>
> Anyhow, it’s awesome to see you work in this area.  Like Chris Marusich
> wrote, Guix is in a good position to address security issues, and you’re
> obviously in a very good position to know what and how to improve the
> state of things in Guix, so all hail!

That's good to hear!

Thanks,

Chris

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