FC12: Hidden files in /usr/bin/*

[Ralf Corsepius]

On 01/22/2010 04:24 PM, Przemek Klosowski wrote:
> On 01/22/2010 07:53 AM, Ralf Corsepius wrote:
>> On 01/22/2010 01:22 PM, Tomas Mraz wrote:
>
>>> These are checksums required by FIPS-140-2 integrity verification checks
>>> of the fipscheck and ssh binaries.
>>
>> I.e. package data.
>>
>> =>   These packages are non-FHS compliant and qualify as broken.
>
> I don't believe so---it's not my line of business but I understand that

I do ... and as a member of the FPC, I do have a strong opinion on this.

> - in some circumstances (government, regulated companies) encryption
>     must be certified to the FIPS 140-2 standard

I don't know this "standard".

> - on Linux encryption (https, ssh) is handled by OpenSSL, which went
>     through the FIPS certification process
>
> - one of the conditions of FIPS certification is a capability for
>     run-time consistency checks, hence the fipscheck package
>
> - the fipscheck package checks against the checksums stored in the
>     .XXX.hmac files, therefore those files are required if a system needs
>     to be FIPS-compliant.
>
> Having said that, I don't understand how does this scheme prevent
> someone from subverting the executable and creating a matching .hmac
> file, so that the fipscheck fails to see the problem.

May-be this "fips standard" collides with the FHS, may-be this standard 
is defective?

Do you have a pointer/reference to this "standard"? Does it really 
mandate pollution /usr/bin and thus $PATH?

> I expect it's
> handled properly but I don't know how.

According to the FHS, such files belong somewhere below /usr/share, 
/usr/lib, /var or even /etc - /usr/bin is reserved for executables.

Package data, package metadata etc. belongs outside of /usr/bin etc.

Ralf