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Gentoo Weekly Newsletter 27 March 2006
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Gentoo Weekly Newsletter
http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/current.xml
This is the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of 27 March 2006.
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==============
1. Gentoo news
==============

Security team recruiting campaign
---------------------------------

Security has always been one of the Gentoo project's strongest aspects. To
prevent the quality of GLSAs from dropping, the security team has started
to actively look for additional help among existing and future developers.
This recruitment campaign aims to compensate for the potential problems
that can delay the fixing of security bugs, including missing or inactive
package maintainers, but also a lack of GLSA coordinators. Other areas
that need more support are the KISS project (kernel security advisory
system) and glsa-check integration into Portage. If you're able and
willing to help with any of these security-related issues, please contact
one of the following project/subproject leaders:

* GLSA team: Sune Kloppenborg Jeppesen[1] or Stefan Cornelius[2] (who
replaces Thierry Carrez as operational co-lead)
* Kernel team: Tim Yamin[3]
* Audit team: Tavis Ormandy[4]
1. jaervosz@gentoo.org
2. dercorny@gentoo.org
3. plasmaroo@gentoo.org
4. taviso@gentoo.org


Note: See the latest security team meeting report for more details.

Bugzilla category change for the installer project
--------------------------------------------------

The maintainers of bugs.gentoo.org[5] have removed the old "Gentoo Linux
Installer" (GLI) component inside the "Gentoo Linux" category. Instead
they have added an "Installer" component as a "Gentoo Release Media"
subcategory. All the old bugs are already reassigned, and if you would
like to file a bug regarding the installer, please use the new component!

5. http://bugs.gentoo.org

Ruby on Rails 1.1 RC1 hits Portage
----------------------------------

The first release candidate of Ruby on Rails[6] 1.1 is now in Portage. For
users running ~arch, it will add the new versions to their gem
installations without removing the old ones. They will be able to make use
of the new version, and can still lock their code to the old version if
they need to. The Portage versions all end in .4008, which represents
upstream's subversion repository commit number for the 1.1_RC1 release.

6. http://www.rubyonrails.com

Users who are interested in trying out the new versions are encouraged to
do so, and file bugs to either Gentoo[7] or http://dev.rubyonrails.org[8]
as appropriate. Those who want to lock their existing Rails applications
to a specific version, they can see the following URLs for information on
how to do so:

7. http://bugs.gentoo.org
8. http://dev.rubyonrails.org

* RC 1 announcement[9]
* How to lock to specific Rails versions[10]
9.
http://weblog.rubyonrails.com/articles/2006/03/22/rails-1-1-release-candidate-1-available
10.
http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/pages/HowtoLockToSpecificRailsVersions


=========================
2. Heard in the community
=========================

Web forums
----------

Timezone down under

Gentoo's timezone data was not updated in time to support the timezone
change made for the Commonwealth Games held in Australia until the end of
March. Several Australian states postponed the usual changeover to
daylight saving time until 2 April. To prevent clocks from running an hour
ahead of time for a whole week, check this thread:

* Newb: How to patch for Commonwealth Games DST[11]
11. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-423456.html


Suddenly the dungeon collapses

Are games in Gentoo inherently unsafe? A recently discovered vulnerability
in Nethack has sparked this lively debate. The vulnerability isn't in
Nethack though. It is caused by the way Gentoo handles games and was not a
problem for any other distro. Should we find a new way to handle the games
group? Come and join the debate!

* Gentoo games group leads to security hole - big surprise(!)[12]
12. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-446415.html


======================
3. Gentoo in the press
======================

ZDNet France (20 March 2006, in French)
---------------------------------------

"Renaissance"[13] is the title of an animated movie by Christian Volckman
set in the year 2054 in Paris. A young scientist is being kidnapped, and
an obscure police officer is trying to get her back. While real human
actors were involved in the making of this "animated Matrix", it was
merely to capture their movements and have those transformed into
computer-generated black-and-white images -- rendered entirely on a
cluster of 200 Gentoo Linux servers. The French ZDNet website clearly
thought this was worth an article[14], which is based on an interview with
Julien Doussot, a technical director of "Attitude Studio"[15], the
creative team behind the scenes. In cinemas in France since last week.

13. http://www.renaissance-lefilm.com
14. http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/informatique/0,39040745,39332299,00.htm
15. http://www.attitude-studio.com

Newsforge (21 March 2006)
-------------------------

"A distro of power"[16] is what Joseph Quigley calls Gentoo Linux in his
testimonial, published last Tuesday as the latest addition to Newsforge's
"My Desktop OS" mini-series. In spite of using Gentoo on what he calls a
"low-end system," he was impressed that he "could watch a DVD and compile
KDE simultaneously with few interruptions or glitches." There are those
who'd disagree on his 1.58GHz Sempron 2300 with 512MB of RAM being on the
low end of things, but then again: "If you have a higher-end system, you
won't be disappointed either," says Quigley.

16. http://os.newsforge.com/os/06/03/15/228227.shtml

=========================
4. Gentoo developer moves
=========================

Moves
-----

The following developers recently left the Gentoo project:

* None this week

Adds
----

The following developers recently joined the Gentoo project:

* None this week

Changes
-------

The following developers recently changed roles within the Gentoo project:

* Thierry Carrez (koon) - stepped down as operational security co-lead
* Stefan Cornelius (DerCorny) - new operational security co-lead

==================
5. Gentoo Security
==================

PeerCast: Buffer overflow
-------------------------

PeerCast is vulnerable to a buffer overflow that may lead to the execution
of arbitrary code.

For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[17]

17. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200603-17.xml

Pngcrush: Buffer overflow
-------------------------

Pngcrush is vulnerable to a buffer overflow which could potentially lead
to the execution of arbitrary code.

For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[18]

18. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200603-18.xml

cURL/libcurl: Buffer overflow in the handling of TFTP URLs
----------------------------------------------------------

libcurl is affected by a buffer overflow in the handling of URLs for the
TFTP protocol, which could be exploited to compromise a user's system.

For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[19]

19. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200603-19.xml

Macromedia Flash Player: Arbitrary code execution
-------------------------------------------------

Multiple vulnerabilities have been identified that allows arbitrary code
execution on a user's system via the handling of malicious SWF files.

For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[20]

20. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200603-20.xml

Sendmail: Race condition in the handling of asynchronous signals
----------------------------------------------------------------

Sendmail is vulnerable to a race condition which could lead to the
execution of arbitrary code with sendmail privileges.

For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[21]

21. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200603-21.xml

PHP: Format string and XSS vulnerabilities
------------------------------------------

Multiple vulnerabilities in PHP allow remote attackers to inject arbitrary
HTTP headers, perform cross site scripting or in some cases execute
arbitrary code.

For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[22]

22. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200603-22.xml

NetHack, Slash'EM, Falcon's Eye: Local privilege escalation
-----------------------------------------------------------

NetHack, Slash'EM and Falcon's Eye are vulnerable to local privilege
escalation vulnerabilities that could potentially allow the execution of
arbitrary code as other users.

For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[23]

23. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200603-23.xml

RealPlayer: Buffer overflow vulnerability
-----------------------------------------

RealPlayer is vulnerable to a buffer overflow that could lead to remote
execution of arbitrary code.

For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[24]

24. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200603-24.xml

===========
6. Bugzilla
===========

Statistics
----------

The Gentoo community uses Bugzilla (bugs.gentoo.org[25]) to record and
track bugs, notifications, suggestions and other interactions with the
development team. Between 19 March 2006 and 26 March 2006, activity on the
site has resulted in:

25. http://bugs.gentoo.org

* 832 new bugs during this period
* 481 bugs closed or resolved during this period
* 27 previously closed bugs were reopened this period

Of the 9756 currently open bugs: 66 are labeled 'blocker', 150 are labeled
'critical', and 536 are labeled 'major'.

Closed bug rankings
-------------------

The developers and teams who have closed the most bugs during this period
are:

* Gentoo Games[26], with 47 closed bugs[27]
* Gentoo Linux Gnome Desktop Team[28], with 21 closed bugs[29]
* Gentoo X-windows packagers[30], with 19 closed bugs[31]
* AMD64 Project[32], with 18 closed bugs[33]
* X11 External Driver Maintainers[34], with 14 closed bugs[35]
* Gentoo's Team for Core System packages[36], with 13 closed bugs[37]
* Gentoo KDE team[38], with 12 closed bugs[39]
* Gentoo Security[40], with 11 closed bugs[41]
26. games@gentoo.org
27.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-03-19&chfieldto=2006-03-26&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=games@gentoo.org
28. gnome@gentoo.org
29.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-03-19&chfieldto=2006-03-26&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=gnome@gentoo.org
30. x11@gentoo.org
31.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-03-19&chfieldto=2006-03-26&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=x11@gentoo.org
32. amd64@gentoo.org
33.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-03-19&chfieldto=2006-03-26&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=amd64@gentoo.org
34. x11-drivers@gentoo.org
35.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-03-19&chfieldto=2006-03-26&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=x11-drivers@gentoo.org
36. base-system@gentoo.org
37.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-03-19&chfieldto=2006-03-26&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=base-system@gentoo.org
38. kde@gentoo.org
39.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-03-19&chfieldto=2006-03-26&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=kde@gentoo.org
40. security@gentoo.org
41.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2006-03-19&chfieldto=2006-03-26&resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=security@gentoo.org


New bug rankings
----------------

The developers and teams who have been assigned the most new bugs during
this period are:

* Default Assignee for New Packages[42], with 32 new bugs[43]
* AMD64 Project[44], with 14 new bugs[45]
* Gentoo's Team for Core System packages[46], with 11 new bugs[47]
* Gentoo Sound Team[48], with 10 new bugs[49]
* Default Assignee for Orphaned Packages[50], with 10 new bugs[51]
* Gentoo Science Related Packages[52], with 7 new bugs[53]
* media-video herd[54], with 7 new bugs[55]
* Gentoo Toolchain Maintainers[56], with 6 new bugs[57]
42. maintainer-wanted@gentoo.org
43.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-03-19&chfieldto=2006-03-26&assigned_to=maintainer-wanted@gentoo.org
44. amd64@gentoo.org
45.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-03-19&chfieldto=2006-03-26&assigned_to=amd64@gentoo.org
46. base-system@gentoo.org
47.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-03-19&chfieldto=2006-03-26&assigned_to=base-system@gentoo.org
48. sound@gentoo.org
49.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-03-19&chfieldto=2006-03-26&assigned_to=sound@gentoo.org
50. maintainer-needed@gentoo.org
51.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-03-19&chfieldto=2006-03-26&assigned_to=maintainer-needed@gentoo.org
52. sci@gentoo.org
53.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-03-19&chfieldto=2006-03-26&assigned_to=sci@gentoo.org
54. media-video@gentoo.org
55.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-03-19&chfieldto=2006-03-26&assigned_to=media-video@gentoo.org
56. toolchain@gentoo.org
57.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2006-03-19&chfieldto=2006-03-26&assigned_to=toolchain@gentoo.org


===============
7. GWN feedback
===============

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58. gwn-feedback@gentoo.org

===============================
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Ulrich Plate <plate@gentoo.org> - Editor
Andrew Gaffney <agaffney@gentoo.org> - Author
Curtis Napier <curtis119@gentoo.org> - Author
Caleb Tennis <caleb@gentoo.org> - Author
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