Allegations of FBI Backdoors in OpenBSD Surface

IvanV · Dec 16, 2010, 11:00 PM

Here's a treat for all the conspiracy theorists out there: In an e-mail to the leader of the OpenBSD project Theo de Raadt, former NETSEC CTO and FBI contractor named Gregory Perry made the claim that FBI payed several developers involved in the project to introduce backdoors to OpenBSD components with the purpose of being able to monitor VPN traffic. The named developers have all denied any such action.

After its inception, OpenBSD project enjoyed significant financial support from DARPA. That support ended in 2003. and Perry points at the alleged FBI action as the most likely cause. Perry also stated that that was the reason why several respected authors who were on FBI payroll had been advocating the use of OpenBSD for VPN and firewalling implementations in virtualized environments.

The story has implications towards other projects as well. Since IPSEC implementation used in OpenBSD was the first of its kind that was freely available, large parts of its code are to be found in a number of other projects.

Original emails here.
A critical analysis of the allegation can be found on NetworkWorld.

Dec 16, 2010, 11:00 PM	#1
IvanV HH Assassin Guild Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 5,919 Rep Power: 336 System Specs	Allegations of FBI Backdoors in OpenBSD Surface Here's a treat for all the conspiracy theorists out there: In an e-mail to the leader of the OpenBSD project Theo de Raadt, former NETSEC CTO and FBI contractor named Gregory Perry made the claim that FBI payed several developers involved in the project to introduce backdoors to OpenBSD components with the purpose of being able to monitor VPN traffic. The named developers have all denied any such action. After its inception, OpenBSD project enjoyed significant financial support from DARPA. That support ended in 2003. and Perry points at the alleged FBI action as the most likely cause. Perry also stated that that was the reason why several respected authors who were on FBI payroll had been advocating the use of OpenBSD for VPN and firewalling implementations in virtualized environments. The story has implications towards other projects as well. Since IPSEC implementation used in OpenBSD was the first of its kind that was freely available, large parts of its code are to be found in a number of other projects. Original emails here. A critical analysis of the allegation can be found on NetworkWorld. __________________ If anyone has Portal 2 and hasn't played the co-op and wants to do me a favour, let me know (PM me or whatever). Last edited by IvanV; Dec 16, 2010 at 11:07 PM.