Could you clarify this - 2.17 has a critical bug and 2.18 is about to come out which doesn't have a good enough patch so how would trunk be any better?
Also how is this passing make test or were the test cases modified to make the bug pass ? On Sun, Feb 18, 2024, 1:12 PM Joe Schaefer <j...@sunstarsys.com> wrote: > Trunk is the safe bet. > > Joe Schaefer, Ph.D. > <https://sunstarsys.com/orion/features> > Orion - The Enterprise Jamstack Wiki > <https://sunstarsys.com/orion/features> > <j...@sunstarsys.com> > 954.253.3732 <//954.253.3732> > > > > > On Sun, Feb 18, 2024 at 2:11 PM Mithun Bhattacharya <mit...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> So is there a cleaner/saner version of libapreq2 or is the 2012 version >> better ? >> >> On Sun, Feb 18, 2024, 12:58 PM Joe Schaefer <j...@sunstarsys.com> wrote: >> >>> For the past 25 years, I have been the lead developer of the libapreq2 >>> subproject within the Apache HTTPd Server Parent Project. The original idea >>> of libapreq as a safe/performant HTML form and Cookie parsing library came >>> out of a collaboration between Lincoln Stein and Doug MacEachern in the >>> late 90s. >>> >>> It was my vision back then to transform the library into a generic, >>> non-Perl related C library that would support language bindings from other >>> programming languages, which is why I pushed for the project to be homes >>> under the HTTPd umbrella instead of the Apache-Perl project. >>> >>> While this vision was wildly successful, with language bindings >>> available for several languages like Perl, TCL, R, etc, ever since about >>> 2010 its proven tragic for the existing user community consisting of all of >>> them, not just Perl. >>> >>> What happened? Philip Gollucci, a Perl/FreeBSD olleague of mine at the >>> time, started agitating that we promote the project to be released from >>> inside the HTTPd server itself. What Philip didn’t know very well back then >>> was how utterly vapid and territorial that team had become, which would >>> have meant having to collaborate with them directly on user-facing >>> decisions about the code base. >>> >>> In 2012, Philip got what he wanted and I stopped resisting, so he forked >>> the existing project and copied the C library components into HTTPd core. >>> >>> In 2016 I resigned from the Foundation en masse. You can guess the >>> reasons. >>> >>> In 2020 or so, Google’s Security Team took advantage of an alpha release >>> of httpd 2.5 by fuzzing its 8 year old copy of apreq. It found a few >>> hotspots that needed repair. >>> >>> Instead of having the courtesy of reaching out to me, or anyone else >>> involved in development of apreq, a junior engineer on the HTTPd team went >>> about the business of “bug fixing” the vulnerabilities Google found. You >>> can see a record of his trial and error work in every release since then. >>> >>> But the coup de grace was the 2022 release of 2.17, wherein the rookie >>> developer purposely introduced a fatal bug into the codebase, breaking a >>> fifteen year old regression test. >>> >>> If you are wondering how something with a broken regression test winds >>> up on CPAN, you’ll have to look into how RELENG is done in the server >>> project. >>> >>> Long story short, they commented out the test and shipped it anyway, and >>> called it a Security Release that fixed a vulnerability every prior release >>> was susceptible to. >>> >>> Why do I care now? Because I’m the sucker users reach out to for answers >>> as a known subject matter expert. >>> >>> This sucks, but I’m sorry to tell you that my days wearing the Superman >>> cape at Apache ended 8 years ago. >>> >>> -- >>> Joe Schaefer, Ph.D. >>> <https://sunstarsys.com/orion/features> >>> Orion - The Enterprise Jamstack Wiki >>> <https://sunstarsys.com/orion/features> >>> <j...@sunstarsys.com> >>> 954.253.3732 <//954.253.3732> >>> >>> >>>
