From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Jakub Narebski Subject: Re: Question about scm security holes Date: Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:49:46 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: References: <32541b131003041803q9abf6baq4cf9ffcca990b51c@mail.gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: Avery Pennarun , walt , git@vger.kernel.org To: Johannes Schindelin X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Fri Mar 05 11:49:55 2010 connect(): Connection refused Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.180.67]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1NnV6Q-0000yg-4N for gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org; Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:49:54 +0100 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1755200Ab0CEKtt (ORCPT ); Fri, 5 Mar 2010 05:49:49 -0500 Received: from fg-out-1718.google.com ([72.14.220.158]:12073 "EHLO fg-out-1718.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1755028Ab0CEKts (ORCPT ); Fri, 5 Mar 2010 05:49:48 -0500 Received: by fg-out-1718.google.com with SMTP id l26so187339fgb.1 for ; Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:49:47 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:received:received :x-authentication-warning:to:cc:subject:references:from:date :in-reply-to:message-id:lines:user-agent:mime-version:content-type; bh=rDxAHYhWsyD5DXiDPoYXwLe/ZZhiAsGq86D0l9qhKb8=; b=bZ2togRzPvPOc53rr0YxrDJTzXYnW0k4pci0vZQTZuXNPOJOU/wEWuLKsHGTUnD2fw FdxSwm8/xgVV4Cganx+/CnrX0CgdCDZqWGrETaqkLiNyYxMQx9mRyaG72imLQSySw8l1 +P6biM+/b8BSs6CfEAqCH+llI4lCcs/cArYug= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=x-authentication-warning:to:cc:subject:references:from:date :in-reply-to:message-id:lines:user-agent:mime-version:content-type; b=lOBWllNhBWAv0Hu894sVGI0x/+9jmIPP1p30t74hzvZxz0ThnqiVgrxSiAvSRNEjjy nUD0dDs1LS9iqQaPAb3EhLYkuYa6gb0j8XtPAkYWF8V4yKnj4B6cGwfPENu5ATTnSBQh fAHzzvz0DQCNoWJ/aGLfxMx/pr3plH+7AuKZE= Received: by 10.103.67.22 with SMTP id u22mr313768muk.12.1267786186797; Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:49:46 -0800 (PST) Received: from localhost.localdomain (abws10.neoplus.adsl.tpnet.pl [83.8.242.10]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id 12sm7530291muq.1.2010.03.05.02.49.45 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:49:46 -0800 (PST) Received: from localhost.localdomain (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by localhost.localdomain (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id o25AnEZP029940; Fri, 5 Mar 2010 11:49:19 +0100 Received: (from jnareb@localhost) by localhost.localdomain (8.13.4/8.13.4/Submit) id o25AmwNN029933; Fri, 5 Mar 2010 11:48:58 +0100 X-Authentication-Warning: localhost.localdomain: jnareb set sender to jnareb@gmail.com using -f In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.4 Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: Johannes Schindelin writes: > On Thu, 4 Mar 2010, Avery Pennarun wrote: > > > An attack in which someone untraceably modified the repo to contain > > modified code would be a little more interesting. > > git makes this sort of thing pretty much impossible to do without it > > being *noticeable* at least. > > That is not true in all cases. > > If you're talking about a workflow as git.git has it, you're right, there > is a maintainer, and a refused push would ring all kinds of alarm bells > there. [...] > It gets even much, much worse in the common setup of companies: a central > repository. (The two main reasons why a central repository is used are: > tradition (we did it with Subversion, too), and bottleneck problems: a > single maintainer reviewing all changes is often deemed too expensive > and slow.) About "bottleneck problem". Frederick Brooks wrote in his seminal book "The Mythical Man-Month" that recommended way of organizing teams is *with a maintainer*. But this is less known that his most famous statement: "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later." (The Brooks's Law)... and I guess companies do not know about this one either :-) -- Jakub Narebski Poland ShadeHawk on #git