LSB-Futures Tracker - SSL
Current status of SSL in the LSB Futures process
Disclaimer
Abstract Secure Socket Layer and Transport Layer Security

ssl is a security protocol that provides communications privacy over the Internet. The protocol allows client/server applications to communicate in a way that is designed to prevent eavesdropping, tampering, or message forgery.

ssl is an IETF draft standard
Version $Revision: 1.12 $
Generated $Date: 2006/06/22 12:12:12 $
Phase 1 - Identification
Status Active
Main issue is resources.
Group Security
Number #022
Assigned 2004-08-06
Demand Yes
Several requests and it has turned up in several usage studies.
Mail clients and other crypto related packages use either libraries or command-line utilities or both.
License Unknown

OpenSSL comes with a free license allowing for both commercial and non-commercial use. It is actually dual licensed under two BSD-style licenses which meet the presently laid down licensing criteria (which is subject to revision.) The following is the "OpenSSL license". The second license not listed here, is the SSLeay license which is the original license under which this package was released.

However, due to patent issues one has to configure OpenSSL so as not to use IDEA, MDC2 and RC5. (This has to be the norm if the library and the tools are to be included in LSB.) Following information is from the "README".

  • RC5 is patented by "RSA Security"
  • RC4 is a registered trademark of "RSA Security"
  • The IDEA algorithm is patented by Ascom in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the USA.
  • MDC2 algorithm is patented by IBM (does IBM free up their patents for potential use in such cases:FIXME)
Bestpractice Yes
Stable Yes
Depends Yes
libc
Phase 2 - Investigation
Rationale Yes
  • Most secure communication mechanisms are based on SSL these include mail(IMAP/POP/SMTP),web-servers
  • Standard on most major distributions
Upstream Unknown
Need to confirm.
ChangeLog indicates minor changes in exported API between successive subversions. 0.9.7a -> 0.9.7h indicate fewer changes, while 0.9.7h -> 0.9.8 show deprecated API being removed. Documentation indicates that major API changes will be avoided towards an approaching a 1.0.0 release.
Distros Unknown
All distros ship it, we need to contact them.
Versions Unknown
v0.9.7(a|b|d|e) shipped with
  • NLD9 SP2
  • Ubuntu 5.04
  • RHEL 4
  • Suse 9.3Pro
  • RedFlag4.1 SP2 RC1
  • Neoshine 2.0.2 build12
  • Mandriva 10.2
  • Debian/Progeny
Patches Yes
Minor API wrappers, Optimisations and Predominantly Distribution specific scripts.
I18n Unknown
Resources Maybe
Codito has offered resources to deliver the specification.
Still need commitments for other deliverables.
Phase 3 - Implementation
Db No
Spec No
Test Yes
in-built test scaffold available on "make test" OpenSSL comes with an extensive test suite for each algorithm implemented within the libraries. This is especially important because all other applications depend on these algorithms to ensure confidentiality and authenticity
Devel No
Sample No
Appbat Maybe
Some existing appbatt applications like apache or samba can use ssl, it would need to be turned on.
Notes
Return to main candidate tracker page
Last generated on Thu Jun 22 12:05:53 2006 GMT.