Lightweight isolation for software build and test

About two years ago, I decided that it’s not a good idea to constantly download unreviewed software written by untrusted individuals and to run that software with full privileges on my laptop. If I was telling a child how to avoid getting viruses on their Windows machine, this would be obvious and normal. But because …

Continue reading ‘Lightweight isolation for software build and test’ »

SSL implementations compared

I reviewed several SSL implementations for coding style: OpenSSL, NSS, GnuTLS, JSSE, Botan, MatrixSSL and PolarSSL. I looked at how buffers are handled in parsers and writers. Of all of them, I think only JSSE, i.e. pure Java, can be trusted to be free of buffer overflows. It suggests that a good webserver for security-critical applications …

Continue reading ‘SSL implementations compared’ »

Using Polyspace Code Prover to verify server software

Polyspace Code Prover is a commercial software verification tool. I exchanged many emails and four phone calls with Mathworks in order to convince them to give me a one-month free trial. Unlike my usual toolset, it is not “free as in freedom”, it is free as in “have fun with those FlexLM bugs, bwahaha”. But, …

Continue reading ‘Using Polyspace Code Prover to verify server software’ »