[nycbug-talk] Fwd: Allegations regarding OpenBSD IPSEC

[Jason Dixon]

My thoughts:
http://obfuscurity.com/2010/12/Deconstructing-the-OpenBSD-IPsec-Rumors

-J.

On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 10:03:55PM -0500, Siraaj Khandkar wrote:
> Anyone else noticed this? Any thoughts?
> 
> 
> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> > From: Theo de Raadt <deraadt at cvs.openbsd.org>
> > Date: 14 December 2010 16:18:27 EST
> > To: security-announce at openbsd.org
> > Subject: Allegations regarding OpenBSD IPSEC
> > 
> > I have received a mail regarding the early development of the OpenBSD
> > IPSEC stack.  It is alleged that some ex-developers (and the company
> > they worked for) accepted US government money to put backdoors into
> > our network stack, in particular the IPSEC stack.  Around 2000-2001.
> > 
> > Since we had the first IPSEC stack available for free, large parts of
> > the code are now found in many other projects/products.  Over 10
> > years, the IPSEC code has gone through many changes and fixes, so it
> > is unclear what the true impact of these allegations are.
> > 
> > The mail came in privately from a person I have not talked to for
> > nearly 10 years.  I refuse to become part of such a conspiracy, and
> > will not be talking to Gregory Perry about this.  Therefore I am
> > making it public so that
> >    (a) those who use the code can audit it for these problems,
> >    (b) those that are angry at the story can take other actions,
> >    (c) if it is not true, those who are being accused can defend themselves.
> > 
> > Of course I don't like it when my private mail is forwarded.  However
> > the "little ethic" of a private mail being forwarded is much smaller
> > than the "big ethic" of government paying companies to pay open source
> > developers (a member of a community-of-friends) to insert
> > privacy-invading holes in software.
> > 
> > ----
> > 
> > From: Gregory Perry <Gregory.Perry at GoVirtual.tv>
> > To: "deraadt at openbsd.org" <deraadt at openbsd.org>
> > Subject: OpenBSD Crypto Framework
> > Thread-Topic: OpenBSD Crypto Framework
> > Thread-Index: AcuZjuF6cT4gcSmqQv+Fo3/+2m80eg==
> > Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2010 23:55:25 +0000
> > Message-ID: <8D3222F9EB68474DA381831A120B1023019AC034 at mbx021-e2-nj-5.exch021.domain.local>
> > Accept-Language: en-US
> > Content-Language: en-US
> > X-MS-Has-Attach:
> > X-MS-TNEF-Correlator:
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> > Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
> > MIME-Version: 1.0
> > Status: RO
> > 
> > Hello Theo,
> > 
> > Long time no talk.  If you will recall, a while back I was the CTO at
> > NETSEC and arranged funding and donations for the OpenBSD Crypto
> > Framework.  At that same time I also did some consulting for the FBI,
> > for their GSA Technical Support Center, which was a cryptologic
> > reverse engineering project aimed at backdooring and implementing key
> > escrow mechanisms for smart card and other hardware-based computing
> > technologies.
> > 
> > My NDA with the FBI has recently expired, and I wanted to make you
> > aware of the fact that the FBI implemented a number of backdoors and
> > side channel key leaking mechanisms into the OCF, for the express
> > purpose of monitoring the site to site VPN encryption system
> > implemented by EOUSA, the parent organization to the FBI.  Jason
> > Wright and several other developers were responsible for those
> > backdoors, and you would be well advised to review any and all code
> > commits by Wright as well as the other developers he worked with
> > originating from NETSEC.
> > 
> > This is also probably the reason why you lost your DARPA funding, they
> > more than likely caught wind of the fact that those backdoors were
> > present and didn't want to create any derivative products based upon
> > the same.
> > 
> > This is also why several inside FBI folks have been recently
> > advocating the use of OpenBSD for VPN and firewalling implementations
> > in virtualized environments, for example Scott Lowe is a well
> > respected author in virtualization circles who also happens top be on
> > the FBI payroll, and who has also recently published several tutorials
> > for the use of OpenBSD VMs in enterprise VMware vSphere deployments.
> > 
> > Merry Christmas...
> > 
> > Gregory Perry
> > Chief Executive Officer
> > GoVirtual Education
> > 
> > "VMware Training Products & Services"
> > 
> > 540-645-6955 x111 (local)
> > 866-354-7369 x111 (toll free)
> > 540-931-9099 (mobile)
> > 877-648-0555 (fax)
> > 
> > http://www.facebook.com/GregoryVPerry
> > http://www.facebook.com/GoVirtual
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-- 
Jason Dixon
DixonGroup Consulting
http://www.dixongroup.net/