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OpenVMS - Doesn't mean "Unable to be Insecure"
SecurityGot pointed to this recent DEFCON presentation on OpenVMS. We're glad to see after all this time, there's still references to OpenVMS at DEFCON. The foray into the Lions Den by a group of Dallas folks is even mentioned in the talk. But, it's an excellent example that even one of the most secure operating systems can still be compromised by bad coding. And even from within OpenVMS Engineering. In particular, the TCP/IP team. Which managed to be bug-compatible with other similar functions. A very interesting talk.


My only critique of the session is "People still run 'finger' on OpenVMS?" Apparently so. A tip o' the hat to Dave Smith from the UK for letting me know about this.
Comments
maveri on March 07 2011 10:27
The video was good and well worth the view.

Sort of shows what happens when OpenVMS starts importing all the non-native tools / stacks etc into it doesn't it?

Still, at the end of the day it shows up security flaws - whether non-native or not and it has the potential to shake existing and future OpenVMS houses.

If HP were smart, they would hire some unix guru's to go over all the various stuff that has been imported into OpenVMS to ensure it doesn't fall to more of these exploits/ As these people pointed out - these are basic exploits in unix, which sort of implied what else was out there!

A lot of people are staying with OpenVMS because of it's perceived security - if they let that image walk out the door there will be a flood away from it.

With HP wanting to bring more and more cross-porting functionality to OpenVMS, one has to wonder what else is going to come across?

Being an OpenVMS advocate myself this video was hard to take in some ways as it stood in the face of many a year of belief that OpenVMS was inherently secure - let's hope all of us OpenVMS folk realise what's at stake here if we sit back and ignore this shot across the bow.

We can all laugh at Windows and unix for lots of things but one thing they do have is an active presence in the security arena and they are not afraid to see the dark side of their OS's in terms of exploits - I feel a number of OpenVMS users are not like this relying more upon historical notions of OpenVMS security than realising all the imported code into OpenVMS can sometimes bite us

Sad to think that in some ways HP must have not rewritten the code from the ground up with OpenVMS design philosophy in mind and instead went the cut and paste route. Still - this is what we have to deal with now.
medhurstt on April 07 2011 19:48
Re : "Sort of shows what happens when OpenVMS starts importing all the non-native tools / stacks etc into it doesn't it?"

Maybe I misunderstood the exploit, but didn't it centre on the CLI 511 character then up-arrowx3 bug rather than the application it was triggered within?

That would squarely make it an OpenVMS problem although there is a fair argument that a crash within TELNET|TCP/IP ought to be handled by the application better too.
JCE on September 16 2011 04:57
Just want to update any who view on comments from the OpenVMS Team...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


The Defcon 16 slides mainly talk about 2 exploits on OpenVMS. Both of these exploits were fixed more than two and a half years ago. The details about the fixes are given below:

1. The Screen Management overflow vulnerability - This issue was fixed in August 2008 and SMGRTL patches were made available for all affected VAX, Alpha and Integrity versions of OpenVMS.

A bulletin was also issued during the time (note: links may have changed or require account login to view):
ITRC URL: http://www13.itrc.hp.com/service/cki/docDisplay.do?docId=emr_na-c01539423
BSC URL: http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c01539423
SAW URL: http://saw.cce.hp.com/km/saw/view.do?docId=emr_na-c01539423


2. Finger Client Format String vulnerability - This issue was fixed in September 2008 and images were provided for TCPIP V5.4 ECO 7, V5.5 ECO 3, and V5.6 ECO 2. This fix was also included in the subsequent TCPIP V5.6 ECO 3.

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/network/new.html

Please note that all update kits since Sep 2008 have the necessary fixes.


In addition to the above fixes, OpenVMS security as well as multiple teams from OpenVMS engineering have investigated and fixed 16 other vulnerabilities since 2009. These include

SSRT100354, SSRT090267, SSRT090249, SSRT090245, SSRT090244, SSRT100023, SSRT090161, SSRT080078, SSRT080058, SSRT071479, SSRT71449, SSRT051029, SSRT4812, SSRT5999, SSRT5956 and SSRT3624.

The details for these can be found at the link given below.

http://intranet.hp.com/tsg/GSE/SSRT/_layouts/listfeed.aspx?List=c093bb37-fae7-4d77-bc12-20d338f3c628&View=b3bfed1a-e80f-4cd7-a2e7-16b05219966a

We have also investigated many vulnerabilities reported in products for other operating systems and found that they are not applicable or do not affect the corresponding products on OpenVMS.

It is our Endeavour to make sure that OpenVMS continues to be the most secure operating system and we are continuously working towards this.
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malmberg
August 04 2022
No more VAX hobbyist licenses. Community licenses for Alpha/IA64/X86_64 VMS Software Inc. Commercial VMS software licenses for VAX available from HPE.

ozboomer
July 20 2022
Just re-visiting.. No more hobbyist licenses? Is that from vmssoftware.com, no 'community' licenses?

valdirfranco
July 01 2022
No more hobbyist license...sad

mister_wavey
February 12 2022
I recall that the disks failed on the public access VMS systems that included Fafner

parwezw
January 03 2022
Anyone know what happened to FAFNER.DYNDS.ORG? I had a hobbyist account here but can longer access the site.

gtackett
October 27 2021
Make that DECdfs _2.1A_ for Vax

gtackett
October 27 2021
I'm looking for DECdfs V2.4A kit for VAX. Asking here just in case anyone is still listening.

MarkRLV
September 17 2021
At one time, didn't this web site have a job board? I would love to use my legacy skills one last time in my career.

malmberg
January 18 2021
New Hobbyist PAKs for VAX/VMS are no longer available according to reports. Only commercial licenses are reported to be for sale from HPE

dfilip
January 16 2021
Can someone please point me to hobbyist license pak? I'm looking for VAX/VMS 7.1, DECnet Phase IV, and UCX/TCPIP ... have the 7.1 media, need the license paks ... thanks!

Bart
October 16 2020
OpenVMS, and this website!

malmberg
September 05 2020
VSI community non-commercial licenses for AXP/IA64 are available now.

malmberg
September 05 2020
See the forum about licensing. Don't know if HPE hobby licenses still being issued. Commercial licenses still being sold.

silfox70
September 01 2020
I need the license for OpenVMS7.3. Where can I find them?

malmberg
August 29 2020
Eisner, which is currently being moved, got an SSH update and the keys were updated to more modern encryption standards.

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