[ale] [Flame] A Disservice to the Linux Community

[Keith Hopkins]

Greetings to those at linuxsecurity.com,

In regards to http://www.linuxsecurity.com/advisories/suse_advisory-1680.html, there is a note that read....
<<QUOTE>>
     The information about this problem was withheld from the public
     in coordination with other Linux vendors/distributors in order to
     give the distributors enough time to update their kernel packages.
     We find that this coordination is beneficial for the community,
     while we regret that the bug could not be fixed in time before the
     other distributor's kernel updates.
<<ENDQUOTE>>

How dare you.  I consider this to be a great disservice to the Linux community.  Linux is not about the vendors/distributors.  They are not the only ones out there with interests in security problems being fixed.  By withholding information, you take away untold number of eyes that could be looking at the problem.  Some of those eyes may even be better equipped to handle the problems than the vendors/distributors themselves, and can do so in a more timely fashion.  You have produced an unnecessary window of opportunity for malicious attacks against unprotected systems.  I do not believe the Linux community needs support from, or should support, those who 
would withhold valuable information from them.  Please do not repeat this type of attitude and behavior.

Regards,
   Keith Hopkins

P.S. To all those reading this on a mailing list, I urge you to respond directly to info at linuxsecurity.com with your opinion.



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