OpenBSD
"Free, Functional & Secure"
Website	www.openbsd.org
Company/ developer	The OpenBSD Project
OS family	BSD
Source model	Open source
Latest stable release	4. A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages The software industry comprises businesses involved in the development, maintenance and publication of Computer software. A software developer is a person or organization concerned with facets of the software development process wider than design and coding a somewhat broader scope of Open source is a development methodology which offers practical accessibility to a product's source (goods and knowledge 3 / May 1, 2008 (2008-05-01); 43 days ago
Package manager	OpenBSD package tools and ports tree
Supported platforms	AMD64, Alpha, i386, MIPS, 68000, PowerPC, SPARC 32/64, VAX, Zaurus and others[1]
Kernel type	Monolithic
Default user interface	Modified pdksh, FVWM 2. Events 305 - Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman Emperor. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Ports collections (or ports trees, or just ports) are the sets of Makefiles and patches provided by the BSD -based Operating systems x86-64 is a Superset of the x86 instruction set architecture. Alpha, originally known as Alpha AXP, was a 64-bit Reduced instruction set computer (RISC Instruction set architecture (ISA developed MIPS (originally an acronym for Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages) is a RISC microprocessor architecture developed by MIPS Technologies The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC Microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor (formerly Motorola Semiconductor PowerPC is a RISC Instruction set architecture created by the 1991 Apple – IBM – Motorola alliance known as AIM SPARC (from Scalable Processor Architecture is a RISC Microprocessor Instruction set architecture originally Name "VAX" was originally an Acronym for V irtual A ddress e' X' tension, both because the VAX was seen as a 32-bit The Sharp Zaurus is the name of a series of Personal Digital Assistant (PDA made by Sharp Corporation. In Computer science, the kernel is the central component of most computer Operating systems (OS A monolithic kernel is a kernel architecture where the entire kernel is run in Kernel space in Supervisor mode. The user interface (or Human Computer Interface) is the aggregate of means by which people&mdash the users '&mdash interact with the System The Korn shell ( ksh) is a Unix shell which was developed by David Korn ( AT&T Bell Laboratories) in the early 1980s The F Virtual Window Manager (The 2. 5 for X11
License	Mostly BSD
Working state	Current

OpenBSD is a Unix-like computer operating system descended from Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), a Unix derivative developed at the University of California, Berkeley. A software license (or software licence in commonwealth usage is a Legal instrument governing the usage or redistribution of copyright protected software BSD licenses represent a family of Permissive free software licences. A Unix-like (sometimes shortened to *nix) Operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system while not necessarily conforming An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX, sometimes also written as Unix with Small caps) is a computer The University of California Berkeley (also referred to as Cal, Berkeley and UC Berkeley) is a major research university located in Berkeley It was forked from NetBSD by project leader Theo de Raadt in late 1995. In Software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a copy of Source code from one software package and start independent development NetBSD is a freely redistributable Open source version of the Unix -derivative Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD Computer Operating Theo de Raadt, (ˈθiːoʊ dεˈrɔːt born May 19, 1968 in Pretoria, South Africa, is a Software engineer who lives in The project is widely known for the developers' insistence on open source code and quality documentation; uncompromising position on software licensing; and focus on security and code correctness. In Computer science, source code (commonly just source or code) is any sequence of statements or declarations written in some Human-readable Documentation may refer to the process of providing evidence ("to document something" or to the communicable material used to provide such documentation (i A software license (or software licence in commonwealth usage is a Legal instrument governing the usage or redistribution of copyright protected software Many current Computer systems have only limited security precautions in place The project is coordinated from de Raadt's home in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Calgary (ˈkælgəriː is the largest city in the Province of Alberta, Canada Alberta (ælˈbɝtə is one of Canada's prairie provinces. It became a province on September 1 1905 Its logo and mascot is Puffy, a pufferfish. Puffy is the Mascot of the free Operating system OpenBSD. Puffy is a Porcupinefish, which is used to signify the intention of Tetraodontidae is a family of primarily marine and estuarine fish

OpenBSD includes a number of security features absent or optional in other operating systems and has a tradition of developers auditing the source code for software bugs and security problems. A software code audit is a comprehensive analysis of Source code in a Programming project with the intent of discovering bugs security breaches or violations of programming A software bug (or just “bug” is an error flaw mistake Failure, fault or “undocumented feature” in a Computer program that prevents it The project maintains strict policies on licensing and prefers the open source BSD licence and its variants—in the past this has led to a comprehensive licence audit and moves to remove or replace code under licences found less acceptable. Open source is a development methodology which offers practical accessibility to a product's source (goods and knowledge BSD licenses represent a family of Permissive free software licences.

As with most other BSD-based operating systems, the OpenBSD kernel and userland programs, such as the shell and common tools like cat and ps, are developed together in a single source repository. In Computer science, the kernel is the central component of most computer Operating systems (OS Userland refers to an application space that is external to the kernel and is protected by Privilege separation. A Unix shell, is a command line shell that provides the traditional User interface for the Unix Operating system and for Unix-like The cat command is a standard Unix program used to concatenate and display files In most Unix-like operating systems the ps program displays the currently-running processes. Third-party software is available as binary packages or may be built from source using the ports tree. Ports collections (or ports trees, or just ports) are the sets of Makefiles and patches provided by the BSD -based Operating systems

The OpenBSD project currently maintains ports for 17 different hardware platforms, including the DEC Alpha, Intel i386, Hewlett-Packard PA-RISC, AMD AMD64 and Motorola 68000 processors, Apple's PowerPC machines, Sun SPARC and SPARC64-based computers, the VAX and the Sharp Zaurus. Typical PC hardware A typical Personal computer consists of a case or chassis in a tower shape (desktop and the following parts Motherboard In Computing, a platform describes some sort of Hardware architecture or Software framework (including Application frameworks, that allows Alpha, originally known as Alpha AXP, was a 64-bit Reduced instruction set computer (RISC Instruction set architecture (ISA developed PA-RISC is a Microprocessor architecture developed by Hewlett-Packard 's Systems & VLSI Technology Operation. x86-64 is a Superset of the x86 instruction set architecture. The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC Microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor (formerly Motorola Semiconductor Apple Inc, ( formerly Apple Computer Inc, is an American Multinational corporation with a focus on designing and manufacturing Consumer electronics PowerPC is a RISC Instruction set architecture created by the 1991 Apple – IBM – Motorola alliance known as AIM Sun Microsystems Inc ( is a multinational vendor of Computers computer components Computer software, and Information technology services SPARC (from Scalable Processor Architecture is a RISC Microprocessor Instruction set architecture originally Name "VAX" was originally an Acronym for V irtual A ddress e' X' tension, both because the VAX was seen as a 32-bit The Sharp Zaurus is the name of a series of Personal Digital Assistant (PDA made by Sharp Corporation. ^[1]

History and popularity

See also: OpenBSD timeline

The OpenBSD 2. A computer is a Machine that manipulates data according to a list of instructions. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX, sometimes also written as Unix with Small caps) is a computer A Unix-like (sometimes shortened to *nix) Operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system while not necessarily conforming A software license (or software licence in commonwealth usage is a Legal instrument governing the usage or redistribution of copyright protected software Many current Computer systems have only limited security precautions in place The following is a summary of the release history of the OpenBSD Operating system. 3 CD-ROM cover with the original mascot, before Puffy appeared with release 2. CD-ROM (an initialism of "Compact Disc Read-Only Memory " is a pre-pressed Compact Disc that contains data accessible to but not writable Puffy is the Mascot of the free Operating system OpenBSD. Puffy is a Porcupinefish, which is used to signify the intention of 7

In December 1994, NetBSD co-founder Theo de Raadt was asked to resign his position as a senior developer and member of the NetBSD core team, and his access to the source code repository was revoked. Theo de Raadt, (ˈθiːoʊ dεˈrɔːt born May 19, 1968 in Pretoria, South Africa, is a Software engineer who lives in The reason for this is not wholly clear, although there are claims that it was due to personality clashes within the NetBSD project and on its mailing lists. An electronic mailing list (sometimes written as elist or e-list) is a special usage of e-mail that allows for widespread distribution of information to ^[2] De Raadt has been criticized for having a sometimes abrasive personality: in his book, Free For All, Peter Wayner claims that de Raadt "began to rub some people the wrong way" before the split from NetBSD;^[3] Linus Torvalds has described him as "difficult;"^[4] and an interviewer admits to being "apprehensive" before meeting him. Linus Benedict Torvalds ( ˈtuːrvalds born December 28 1969 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish software engineer ^[5] Many have different feelings: the same interviewer describes de Raadt's "transformation" on founding OpenBSD and his "desire to take care of his team," some find his straightforwardness refreshing, and few deny he is a talented coder^[6] and security "guru". A programmer is someone who writes Computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist A guru (गुरु গুরু is a person who is regarded as having great knowledge wisdom and authority in a certain area and uses it to guide others ^[7]

In October 1995, de Raadt founded OpenBSD, a new project forked from NetBSD 1. 0. The initial release, OpenBSD 1. 2, was made in July 1996, followed in October of the same year by OpenBSD 2. 0. ^[8] Since then, the project has followed a schedule of a release every six months, each of which is maintained and supported for one year. The latest release, OpenBSD 4. 3, appeared on May 1, 2008. Events 305 - Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman Emperor. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common ^[9]

Bar chart showing the proportion of users of each BSD variant from a BSD usage survey. See CategoryBar chart templates for Wikipedia templates to make bar charts ^[10] Each participant was permitted to indicate multiple BSD variants

On 25 July 2007, OpenBSD developer Bob Beck announced the formation of the OpenBSD Foundation,^[11] a Canadian not-for-profit corporation formed to "act as a single point of contact for persons and organizations requiring a legal entity to deal with when they wish to support OpenBSD. Events 285 - Diocletian appoints Maximian as Caesar, co-ruler Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. The OpenBSD Foundation is a Canadian federal Non-profit organization founded by the OpenBSD project "as a single point of contact for persons and organizations "^[12]

Just how widely OpenBSD is used is hard to ascertain: the developers do not collect and publish usage statistics and there are few other sources of information. In September, 2005 the nascent BSD Certification project performed a usage survey which revealed that 32. 8% of BSD users (1420 of 4330 respondents) were using OpenBSD,^[10] placing it second of the four major BSD variants, behind FreeBSD with 77. FreeBSD is a Unix-like free Operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD branch through 0% and ahead of NetBSD with 16. 3%. ^[13] The DistroWatch website, well-known in the Linux community and often used as a reference for popularity, publishes page hits for each of the Linux distributions and other operating systems it covers. DistroWatch is a popular Website which provides news popularity rankings and other general information about various Linux distributions as well as other Free A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks A Linux distribution (also called GNU/Linux by distributions such as Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Mandriva and As of April 14, 2007 it places OpenBSD in 55th place, with 121 hits per day. Events 43 BC - Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging Julius Caesar 's assassin Decimus Junius Brutus in Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. FreeBSD is in 16th place with 478 hits per day and a number of Linux distributions range between them.

Open source and open documentation

When OpenBSD was created, Theo de Raadt decided that the source should be available for anyone to read at any time, so, with the assistance of Chuck Cranor,^[14] he set up a public, anonymous CVS server. In the field of Software development, the Concurrent Versions System ( CVS) also known as the Concurrent Versioning System, provides a Version This was the first of its kind in the software development world: at the time, the tradition was for only a small team of developers to have access to a project's source repository. This practice had downsides, notably that outside contributors had no way to closely follow a project's development and contributed work would often duplicate already completed efforts. This decision led to the name OpenBSD and signaled the project's insistence on open and public access to both source code and documentation.

A revealing incident regarding open documentation occurred in March 2005, when de Raadt posted a message^[15] to the openbsd-misc mailing list. He announced that after four months of discussion, Adaptec had yet to disclose the required documentation to improve the OpenBSD drivers for its AAC RAID controllers. Adaptec is a Computer hardware company based in Milpitas California that primarily produces Host adapters for connecting storage devices In computing a device driver or software driver is a Computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a Hardware device RAID — which stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks,or alternatively Redundant Array of Independent Disks (a less specific name and thus now the As in similar circumstances in the past, he encouraged the OpenBSD community to become involved and express their opinion to Adaptec. Shortly after this, FreeBSD committer, former Adaptec employee and author of the FreeBSD AAC RAID support Scott Long^[16] castigated de Raadt^[17] on the OSNews website for not contacting him directly regarding the issues with Adaptec. A person who has permission to modify a particular Software Source code. OSNews is a Computing news site with a focus on Operating systems and their related technologies that launched in 1997. This caused the discussion to spill over onto the freebsd-questions mailing list, where the OpenBSD project leader countered^[18] by claiming that he had received no previous offer of help from Scott Long nor been referred to him by Adaptec. The debate was amplified^[19] by disagreements between members of the two camps regarding the use of binary blob drivers and non-disclosure agreements (NDAs): OpenBSD developers do not permit the inclusion of closed source binary drivers in the source tree and are reluctant to sign NDAs. In open source culture, binary blob is a pejorative term for an object file loaded into the kernel of a free or open source A non-disclosure agreement (NDA also known as a confidentiality agreement, confidential disclosure agreement (CDA proprietary information agreement Proprietary software is Computer software on which the producer has set restrictions on use private modification copying, or republishing. However, the policy of the FreeBSD project has been less strict and much of the Adaptec RAID management code Scott Long proposed as assistance for OpenBSD was closed source or written under an NDA. As no documentation was forthcoming before the deadline for release of OpenBSD 3. 7, support for Adaptec AAC RAID controllers was removed from the standard OpenBSD kernel.

The OpenBSD policy on openness extends to hardware documentation: in the slides for a December 2006 presentation, de Raadt explained that without it "developers often make mistakes writing drivers," and pointed out that "the [oh my god, I got it to work] rush is harder to achieve, and some developers just give up. "^[20] He went on to say that vendor binary drivers are unacceptable, as they cannot be trusted and there is "no way to fix [them] . . . when they break," that even vendor source is only "marginally acceptable" and still difficult to fix when problems occur, and further commented "if we cannot maintain a driver after the vendor stops caring, we . . . have a broken hardware [sic]. "

Licensing

OpenBSD 3. 7 running X.Org with the JWM window manager

A goal of the OpenBSD project is to "maintain the spirit of the original Berkeley Unix copyrights," which permitted a "relatively un-encumbered Unix source distribution. The XOrg Server (officially the XOrg Foundation Open Source Public Implementation of X11) is the X server in the official reference implementation of the X JWM (Joe's Window Manager is a Window manager for the X Window System written by Joe Wingbermuehle An X window manager is a Window manager which runs on top of the X Window System, a Windowing system mainly used on Unix-like systems Copyright is a legal concept enacted by Governments, giving the creator of an original work of authorship Exclusive rights to control its distribution usually for "^[21] To this end, the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) licence, a simplified version of the BSD licence with wording removed that is unnecessary under the Berne convention, is preferred for new code, but the MIT or BSD licences are accepted. The ISC licence is a Permissive free software licence written by the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, is an international agreement governing Copyright The MIT License is a Free software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT used by the MIT X Consortium. The widely used GNU General Public License is considered overly restrictive in comparison with these:^[22] code licensed under it, and other licences the project sees as undesirable, is no longer accepted for addition to the base system. In addition, existing code under such licences is actively replaced or relicensed when possible, except in some cases, where there is no suitable replacement and creating one would be time-consuming and impractical. In September 2007, the OpenBSD team took the initial steps towards replacing the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) by importing Anders Magnusson's BSD-licensed Portable C Compiler (PCC) into CVS. The GNU Compiler Collection (usually shortened to GCC) is a set of Compilers produced for various Programming languages by the GNU Project The Portable C Compiler (also known as pcc or sometimes pccm - portable C compiler machine was an early Compiler for the C programming language ^[23] The results of the OpenBSD team's efforts to replace encumbered code have been impressive: of particular note is the development of OpenSSH, based on the original SSH suite and developed further by the OpenBSD team. ! ssh and Computer networking |-! Unix-like and Software licensing |-! Computer insecurity OpenSSH ( OpenBSD Secure Shell Secure Shell or SSH is a Network protocol that allows data to be exchanged using a Secure channel between two networked devices It first appeared in OpenBSD 2. 6 and is now the single most popular SSH implementation, available as standard or as a package on many operating systems. Also worth mentioning is the development, after licence restrictions were imposed on IPFilter, of the pf packet filter, which first appeared^[24] in OpenBSD 3. IPFilter (commonly referred to as ipf) is an Open source software package that provides firewall services and Network address translation (NAT PF ( Packet Filter, also written pf) is a BSD licensed stateful Packet filter, a central piece of software for Firewalling It is comparable A firewall is an integrated collection of security measures designed to prevent unauthorized electronic access to a networked computer system 0 and is now available in DragonFly BSD, NetBSD and FreeBSD; more recently, OpenBSD releases have seen the GPL licensed tools bc, dc, diff, grep, gzip, nm, pkg-config, RCS, sendbug (part of GNATS) and size replaced with BSD licensed equivalents. DragonFly BSD is a free Unix-like operating system created as a fork of FreeBSD 4 dc is a reverse-polish desk calculator which supports unlimited precision arithmetics. In Computing, diff is a File comparison utility that outputs the differences between two files or the changes made to a current file by comparing it to a grep is a command line text search utility originally written for Unix. gzip is a Software application used for File compression. gzip is short for GNU zip; the program is a Free software replacement for the The nm command ships with a number of later versions of Unix and similar Operating systems nm is used to examine Binary files (including libraries pkg-config is a piece of computer Software that provides a unified interface for querying installed libraries for the purpose of compiling software from its Source The Revision Control System ( RCS) is a software implementation of Revision control that automates the storing retrieval logging identification and merging of revisions GNATS is the GNU project 's bug-tracking software GNATS is Free software, distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. size is a command line utility originally written for use with the Unix -like operating systems OpenBSD developers are also behind OpenBGPD, OpenOSPFD, OpenNTPD and OpenCVS, BSD licensed alternatives to existing software. OpenBGPD allows general purpose computers to be used as Routers. OpenBGPD allows general purpose computers to be used as Routers. OpenNTPD is a Unix system daemon implementing the Network Time Protocol to synchronize the local clock of a computer system with remote NTP servers OpenCVS is a BSD-licensed implementation of the popular Unix version control software called Concurrent Versions System.

In June 2001, triggered by concerns over Darren Reed's modification of IPFilter's licence wording, a systematic licence audit of the OpenBSD ports and source trees was undertaken. ^[25] Code in more than a hundred files throughout the system was found to be unlicensed, ambiguously licensed or in use against the terms of the licence. To ensure that all licences were properly adhered to, an attempt was made to contact all the relevant copyright holders: some pieces of code were removed, many were replaced, and others, including the multicast routing tools, mrinfo and map-mbone,^[26] which were licensed by Xerox for research only, were relicensed so that OpenBSD could continue to use them. Multicast is a network addressing method for the delivery of Information to a group of destinations simultaneously using the most efficient strategy Routing is the process of selecting paths in a network along which to send network traffic Xerox Corporation ( (name ˈziːrɒks is a global document management company which manufactures and sells a range of color and black-and-white printers, multifunction Also of note during this audit was the removal of all software produced by Daniel J. Bernstein from the OpenBSD ports tree. Daniel Julius Bernstein (sometimes known simply as djb; born October 29, 1971) is a Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago At the time, Bernstein requested that all modified versions of his code be approved by him prior to redistribution, a requirement to which OpenBSD developers were unwilling to devote time or effort. ^[27] The removal led to a clash with Bernstein who felt the removal of his software to be uncalled for and cited the Netscape web browser as much less free, accusing the OpenBSD developers of hypocrisy for permitting Netscape to remain while removing his software. Netscape Communications (formerly known as Netscape Communications Corporation and commonly known as Netscape) is an American computer services company A web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text images videos music games and other information typically located on a ^[28] The OpenBSD project's stance was that Netscape, although not open source, had licence conditions that could be more easily met;^[29] they asserted that Bernstein's demand for control of derivatives would lead to a great deal of additional work and that removal was the most appropriate way to comply with his requirements.

Security and code auditing

For more details on this topic, see OpenBSD security features. The OpenBSD Operating system is noted for its security focus and for the development of a number of security features.

Shortly after OpenBSD's creation, Theo de Raadt was contacted by a local security software company named Secure Networks, Inc. or SNI. ^[30][31] They were developing a "network security auditing tool" called Ballista (later renamed to Cybercop Scanner after SNI was purchased by Network Associates) which was intended to find and attempt to exploit possible software security flaws. McAfee Inc ( is an Antivirus software and Computer security company headquartered in Santa Clara California. An exploit (from the same word in the French language, meaning "achievement" or "accomplishment" is a piece of Software, a chunk of data or This coincided well with de Raadt's own interest in security, so the two agreed to cooperate, a relationship that was of particular use leading up to the release of OpenBSD 2. 3^[32] and helped to form the focal point of the project: OpenBSD developers would attempt to do what was right, proper or secure, even at the cost of ease, speed or functionality. As bugs within OpenBSD became harder to find and exploit, the security company found that it was too difficult, or not cost effective, to handle such obscure problems. After years of cooperation, the two parties decided that their goals together had been met and parted ways.

Until June 2002, the OpenBSD website featured the slogan:

In June 2002, Mark Dowd of Internet Security Systems disclosed a bug in the OpenSSH code implementing challenge-response authentication. IBM Internet Security Systems is a Security Software provider which was founded in 1994 as Internet Security Systems, and is often known simply as In Computer security, challenge-response authentication is a family of protocols in which one party presents a question ("challenge" and another party must provide Authentication (from Greek αυθεντικός real or genuine from authentes author is the act of establishing or confirming something (or someone as ^[33] This vulnerability in the OpenBSD default installation allowed an attacker remote access to the root account, and was extremely serious, partly due to the widespread use of OpenSSH by that time: the bug affected a considerable number of other operating systems. In Computer security, the term vulnerability is applied to a weakness in a system which allows an attacker to violate the integrity of that system On many computer Operating systems the superuser, or root, is a special User account used for System administration. ^[34] This problem necessitated the adjustment of the slogan on the OpenBSD website to:

The page was updated as time passed, until on March 13, 2007 when Core Security Technologies^[35] disclosed a network-related remote vulnerability,^[36] it was altered to:

This statement has been criticized because little is enabled in a default install of OpenBSD and releases have included software that was later found to have remote holes; however, the project maintains that the slogan is intended to refer to a default install and that it is correct by that measure. Events 1138 - Cardinal Gregorio Conti is elected Antipope as Victor IV, succeeding Anacletus II. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. One of the fundamental ideas behind OpenBSD is a drive for systems to be simple, clean and secure by default. Secure by default, in software, means that the default configuration settings are the most secure settings possible which are not necessarily For example, OpenBSD's minimal defaults fit in with standard computer security practice of enabling as few services as possible on production machines, and the project uses open source and code auditing practices argued to be important elements of a security system. ^[37]

OpenBSD 3. 8-current booting. In Computing, booting ( booting up) is a bootstrapping process that starts Operating systems when the user turns on a Computer system 3. 8 saw security changes to the malloc function

OpenBSD includes a large number of specific features designed to improve security, including API and toolchain alterations, such as the arc4random, issetugid, strlcat, strlcpy and strtonum functions and a static bounds checker; memory protection techniques to guard against invalid accesses, such as ProPolice, StackGhost, the W^X (W xor X) page protection features, as well as alterations to malloc; and cryptography and randomization features, including network stack enhancements and the addition of the Blowfish cipher for password encryption. In Computing, malloc is a Subroutine provided in the C and C++ programming language 's standard libraries for performing In Computer science, a subroutine ( function, method, procedure, or subprogram) is a portion of code within a larger In Software, a toolchain is the set of Computer programs ( tools) that are used to create a product (typically another computer program or system of programs The strlcpy function developed by Todd C Miller and Theo de Raadt for use in the C programming language, is intended to replace the function The strlcpy function developed by Todd C Miller and Theo de Raadt for use in the C programming language, is intended to replace the function In Computer science, a subroutine ( function, method, procedure, or subprogram) is a portion of code within a larger Static code analysis is the analysis of computer Software that is performed without actually executing programs built from that software (analysis performed on executing Buffer overflow protection refers to various techniques used during software development to enhance the security of executable programs by detecting Buffer overflows on Stack Buffer overflow protection refers to various techniques used during software development to enhance the security of executable programs by detecting Buffer overflows on Stack W^X (spoken as double-u ex-or ex) is the name of a security feature present in the OpenBSD Operating system. In Computer Operating systems that have their Main memory divided into pages, paging (sometimes called swapping) is a transfer In Computing, malloc is a Subroutine provided in the C and C++ programming language 's standard libraries for performing Cryptography (or cryptology; from Greek grc κρυπτός kryptos, "hidden secret" and grc γράφω gráphō, "I write" Randomization is the process of making something Random; this means Generating a Random permutation of a sequence (such as when shuffling cards A protocol stack (sometimes communications stack) is a particular software implementation of a Computer networking protocol suite In Cryptography, Blowfish is a keyed symmetric Block cipher, designed in 1993 by Bruce Schneier and included in a large number of In computing a password is a Word or string of characters that is entered often along with a user name, in modern times usually into a computer system To reduce the risk of a vulnerability or misconfiguration allowing privilege escalation, some programs have been written or adapted to make use of privilege separation, privilege revocation and chrooting. Privilege Escalation is the act of exploiting a bug or design fault in a Software application to gain access to resources which normally would In Computer programming and Computer security, privilege separation is a technique in which a program is divided into parts which are limited to the specific Privilege revocation is the act of an Entity giving up some or all of the privileges they possess or some Authority taking those (privileged rights A chroot on Unix Operating systems is an operation that changes the apparent disk Root directory for the current running process and its children Privilege separation is a technique, pioneered on OpenBSD and inspired by the principle of least privilege, where a program is split into two or more parts, one of which performs privileged operations and the other—almost always the bulk of the code—runs without privilege. In Information security, Computer science, and other fields the principle of least privilege, also known as the principle of minimal privilege or just ^[38] Privilege revocation is similar and involves a program performing any necessary operations with the privileges it starts with then dropping them, and chrooting involves restricting an application to one section of the file system, prohibiting it from accessing areas that contain private or system files. In Computing, a file system (often also written as filesystem) is a method for storing and organizing Computer files and the data they contain to make Developers have applied these features to OpenBSD versions of common applications, including tcpdump and the Apache web server, which, due to licensing issues with the later Apache 2 series, is a heavily patched 1. tcpdump is a common Packet sniffer that runs under the Command line. The term web server can mean one of two things A Computer program that is responsible for accepting HTTP requests from web clients which are 3. 29 release.

The project has a policy of continually auditing code for security problems, work developer Marc Espie has described as "never finished . . . more a question of process than of a specific bug being hunted. "^[39] He went on to list several typical steps once a bug is found, including examining the entire source tree for the same and similar issues, "try[ing] to find out whether the documentation ought to be amended," and investigating whether "it's possible to augment the compiler to warn against this specific problem. A compiler is a Computer program (or set of programs that translates text written in a computer language (the source language) into another " Along with DragonFly, OpenBSD is one of the two open source operating systems with a policy of seeking out examples of classic, K&R C code and converting it to the more modern ANSI equivalent—this involves no functional change and is purely for readability and consistency reasons. tags please moot on the talk page first! --> In Computing, C is a general-purpose cross-platform block structured ANSI C is the standard published by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI for the C programming language. A standard code style, the Kernel Normal Form, which dictates how code must look in order to be easily maintained and understood, must be applied to all code before it is considered for inclusion in the base operating system; existing code is actively updated to meet the style requirements.

Uses

OpenBSD's security enhancements, built-in cryptography and the pf firewall suit it for use in the security industry, particularly for firewalls, intrusion-detection systems and VPN gateways. A firewall is an integrated collection of security measures designed to prevent unauthorized electronic access to a networked computer system An Intrusion detection system ( IDS) is software and/or hardware designed to detect unwanted attempts at accessing manipulating and/or disabling of computer systems In Telecommunications, the term gateway has the following meaning In a Communications network, a network node equipped for interfacing with It is also commonly used for servers which must resist cracking and DoS attacks, and due to including the spamd daemon, it sometimes is used in mail filtering applications. A black hat is the Villain or bad guy, especially in a western movie in which such a character would wear a black Hat in contrast to the spamd is a BSD licensed lightweight spam -deferral daemon written under the umbrella of the OpenBSD project In Unix and other computer multitasking Operating systems a daemon (ˈdiːmən or /ˈdeɪmən/ is a Computer program that runs in the background Email filtering is the processing of E-mail to organize it according to specified criteria

Several proprietary systems are based on OpenBSD, including Profense from Armorlogic ApS,^[40] AccessEnforcer from Calyptix Security,^[41] GeNUGate and GeNUBox from GeNUA mbH,^[42] RTMX O/S from RTMX Inc,^[43] syswall from Syscall Network Solutions AG,^[44] HIOBMessenger from topX, and various security appliances made by . Proprietary software is Computer software on which the producer has set restrictions on use private modification copying, or republishing. vantronix GmbH. ^[45] Of these, GeNUA, RTMX, and . vantronix have contributed back to OpenBSD: GeNUA funded the development of SMP on the i386 platform, RTMX have sent patches to add further POSIX compliance to the system, and . In Computing, symmetric multiprocessing or SMP involves a Multiprocessor computer-architecture where two or more identical processors can connect to a single POSIX (ˈpɒzɪks or "Portable Operating System Interface" is the collective name of a family of related standards specified by the IEEE to define vantronix contributed in networking and load balancing. In Computer networking, load balancing is a technique to spread work between two or more computers network links CPUs hard drives or other resources in order to get optimal Several open source operating systems have also been derived from OpenBSD, notably Anonym.OS and MirOS BSD, as well as the now defunct ekkoBSD, MicroBSD and Gentoo/OpenBSD. AnonymOS was a Live CD Operating system based on OpenBSD 38 with strong Encryption and anonymization tools MirOS BSD (the original name MirBSD is deprecated is a free Operating system, which started as a fork of OpenBSD 3 ekkoBSD was a Unix-like Operating system based on OpenBSD 33 also incorporating code from other BSD -like operating systems MicroBSD is a fork of the UNIX-like BSD Operating system descendant OpenBSD 3 Gentoo/Alt is a Gentoo Linux project created to manage porting the Portage framework and other features to other Operating systems such as Mac OS X In addition, code from many of the OpenBSD system tools has been used in recent versions of Microsoft's Services for UNIX, an extension to the Windows operating system which provides some Unix-like functionality, originally based on 4.4BSD-Lite. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Microsoft Windows Services for UNIX ( SFU) is a software package produced by Microsoft which provides a Unix subsystem and other parts of a full Unix Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Core force, a security product for Windows, is based on OpenBSD's pf firewall. Core Force is a Freeware Personal firewall that incorporates modules for the control of processes (it is what is commonly referred to as a HIPS Acronym There have also been projects which use OpenBSD as part of images for embedded systems, including OpenSoekris and flashdist; together with tools like nsh, these allow Cisco-like embedded devices to be created. An embedded system is a special-purpose Computer system designed to perform one or a few dedicated functions often with Real-time computing constraints ^[46]

OpenBSD 3. 8 running X.Org with the default FVWM 2. The XOrg Server (officially the XOrg Foundation Open Source Public Implementation of X11) is the X server in the official reference implementation of the X The F Virtual Window Manager (The 2. 5 window manager

OpenBSD ships with the X window system. An X window manager is a Window manager which runs on top of the X Window System, a Windowing system mainly used on Unix-like systems Following the XFree86 licence change, it includes a recent X.Org release; an older XFree86 3. XFree86 is an implementation of the X Window System. It was originally written for Unix-like Operating systems on IBM PC compatibles and is now XFree86 is an implementation of the X Window System. It was originally written for Unix-like Operating systems on IBM PC compatibles and is now The XOrg Server (officially the XOrg Foundation Open Source Public Implementation of X11) is the X server in the official reference implementation of the X 3 release is also available for legacy video cards. A video card, also known as a graphics accelerator card, display adapter, or graphics card, is a hardware component whose function is to With these, it is possible to use OpenBSD as a desktop or workstation, making use of a desktop environment, window manager or both to give the X desktop a wide range of appearances. In graphical computing a desktop environment ( DE) commonly refers to a style of Graphical user interface (GUI that is based on the Desktop metaphor which An X window manager is a Window manager which runs on top of the X Window System, a Windowing system mainly used on Unix-like systems The OpenBSD ports tree contains many of the most popular tools for desktop use, including desktop environments GNOME, KDE, and Xfce; web browsers Konqueror, Mozilla Firefox and Opera; and multimedia programs MPlayer, VLC media player and xine. A gnome is a Mythical creature characterized by its extremely small size and subterranean lifestyle KDE ( K Desktop Environment) (ˌkeɪdiːˈiː is a Free software project which aims to be a powerful system for an easy-to-use Desktop environment. Xfce ( ɛf siː iː is a Free software Desktop environment for Unix and other Unix-like platforms such as Linux, Solaris Konqueror is a Web browser, File manager and File viewer designed as a core part of the K Desktop Environment. Opera is a Web browser and Internet suite developed by the Opera Software company Multimedia is media and content that utilizes a combination of different content forms. MPlayer is a free and Open source media player. The program is available for all major Operating systems including Linux xine (officially ksin is a Multimedia playback engine for Unix-like Operating systems released under the GNU General Public License. In addition, graphical software for many uses is available from both the ports tree and by compiling POSIX compliant software. Also available are compatibility layers, which allow binary code compiled for other operating systems, including Linux, FreeBSD, SunOS and HP-UX, to be run. A compatibility layer is a term that refers to components that allow for non-native support of components SunOS is a version of the Unix Operating system developed by Sun Microsystems for their Workstation and server Computer HP-UX (Hewlett Packard UniX is Hewlett-Packard 's proprietary implementation of the Unix Operating system, based on System V (initially However, despite partial support in X. Org, OpenBSD lacks accelerated 3D graphics support. ^[47]

OpenBSD's performance and usability is occasionally criticised. Felix von Leitner's performance and scalability tests^[48] indicated that OpenBSD lagged behind other operating systems. In Telecommunications and Software engineering, scalability is a desirable property of a system a network or a process which indicates its ability to either In response, OpenBSD users and developers criticised von Leitner's objectivity and methodology, and asserted that although performance is given consideration, security and correct design are prioritised, with developer Nick Holland commenting: "It all boils down to what you consider important. "^[49] OpenBSD is also a relatively small project, particularly when compared with FreeBSD and Linux, and developer time is sometimes seen as better spent on security enhancements than performance optimisations. Critics of usability say that OpenBSD has a lack of user-friendly configuration tools, a bare default installation,^[50] and a "spartan" and "intimidating" installer. ^[51] These see much the same rebuttals as performance: a preference for simplicity, reliability and security; as one reviewer puts it, "running an ultra-secure operating system can be a bit of work. "^[52]

Distribution and marketing

OpenBSD is available freely in various ways: the source can be retrieved by anonymous CVS or CVSup, and binary releases and development snapshots can be downloaded either by FTP or HTTP. CVSup is a Computer program that synchronizes files and directories from one location to another while minimizing Data transfer using Hypertext Transfer Protocol ( HTTP) is a Communications protocol for the transfer of information on the Internet. Prepackaged CD-ROM sets can be ordered online for a small fee, complete with an assortment of stickers and a copy of the release's theme song. CD-ROM (an initialism of "Compact Disc Read-Only Memory " is a pre-pressed Compact Disc that contains data accessible to but not writable These, with its artwork and other bonuses, are one of the project's few sources of income, funding hardware, bandwidth and other expenses. Until OpenBSD 4. 2, only a small install ISO image was available for download, to encourage sales of the full CD-ROM set. An ISO image is an Archive file (aka Disk image) of an Optical disc using a conventional ISO ( International Organization for Standardization OpenBSD 4. 2 provides a complete install ISO.

In common with several other operating systems, OpenBSD uses ports and packaging systems to allow for easy installation and management of programs which are not part of the base operating system. Originally based on the FreeBSD ports tree, the system is now quite distinct. Additionally, major changes have been made since the 3. 6 release, including the replacement of the package tools, the tools available to the user to manipulate packages, by more capable versions, written in Perl by Marc Espie. NOTES FOR EDITORS "Perl" is not an acronym (read the "Name" section below In contrast to FreeBSD, the OpenBSD ports system is intended as a source used to create the end product, the packages: installing a port first creates a package and then installs it using the package tools. Packages are built in bulk by the OpenBSD team and provided for download with each release. OpenBSD is also unique among the BSDs in that the ports and base operating system are developed and released together for each version: this means that the ports or packages released with, for example, 3. 7 are not suitable for use with 3. 6 and vice versa, a policy which lends a great deal of stability to the development process, but means that the software in ports for the latest OpenBSD release can lag somewhat from the latest version available from the author.

Puffy, painted

Around the time of the OpenBSD 2. Puffy is the Mascot of the free Operating system OpenBSD. Puffy is a Porcupinefish, which is used to signify the intention of 7 release, the original mascot, a BSD daemon with a trident and halo, was replaced by Puffy, traditionally said to be a pufferfish. The BSD daemon, nicknamed Beastie, is the generic Mascot of BSD Operating systems Overview The BSD daemon is named after a A trident (ˈtrаɪdənt also called a leister or gig, is a three- pronged Spear. A halo (ἅλως also known as a nimbus, Aureole, glory, or gloriole) is a ring of light that surrounds a person in art Tetraodontidae is a family of primarily marine and estuarine fish In fact pufferfish do not possess spikes and images of Puffy are closer to a similar species, the porcupinefish. Porcupinefish are Fish of the family Diodontidae, (order Tetraodontiformes) also commonly called blowfish (and sometimes "balloonfish" Puffy was selected because of the Blowfish encryption algorithm used in OpenSSH and the strongly defensive image of the porcupinefish with its spikes to deter predators. He quickly became very popular, mainly because of the appealing image of the fish and his distinction from the BSD daemon, also used by FreeBSD, and the horde of daemons then used by NetBSD. Puffy made his first public appearance in OpenBSD 2. 6 and, since then, has appeared in a number of guises on tee-shirts and posters. A T-shirt (or tee shirt) is a Shirt which is pulled on over the head to cover most of a person's Torso. A poster is any piece of printed Paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface These have included Puffiana Jones, the famed hackologist and adventurer, seeking out the Lost RAID; Puffathy, a little Alberta girl, who must work with Taiwan to save the day; Sir Puffy of Ramsay, a freedom fighter who, with Little Bob of Beckley, took from the rich and gave to all; and Puff Daddy, famed rapper and political icon. Taiwan ( Taiwanese: Tâi-oân/Tāi-oân (historically 大灣/台員/大員/台圓/大圓/台窩灣 is an Island in East Asia.

After a number of releases, OpenBSD has become notorious for its catchy songs and interesting and often comical artwork. The promotional material of early OpenBSD releases did not have a cohesive theme or design but, starting with OpenBSD 3. 0, the CD-ROMs, release songs, posters and tee-shirts for each release have been produced with a single style and theme, sometimes contributed to by Ty Semaka of the Plaid Tongued Devils. The Plaid Tongued Devils are a Canadian musical group It started as an alternative country duet with singer Ty Semaka and guitarist Alan Kolodziejzyk in At first they were done lightly and only intended to add humour but, as the concept has evolved, they have become a part of OpenBSD advocacy, with each release expanding a moral or political point important to the project, often through parody. Operating system advocacy is the practice of attempting to increase the awareness and improve the perception of a Computer Operating system. A parody (ˈpɛɹədiː US, [ˈpaɹədiː] UK) in contemporary usage is a work created to mock comment on or poke fun at an original work its subject Past themes have included: in OpenBSD 3. 8, the Hackers of the Lost RAID, a parody of Indiana Jones linked to the new RAID tools featured as part of the release; The Wizard of OS, making its debut in OpenBSD 3. Dr (also Col Henry Walton Jones Jr, better known as Indiana Jones or Indy after his pet dog is a fictional Adventurer, Soldier 7, based on the work of Pink Floyd and a parody of The Wizard of Oz related to the project's recent wireless work; and OpenBSD 3. Pink Floyd are The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical - Fantasy film mainly directed by Victor Fleming and based on the 1900 children’s Wireless communication is the transfer of information over a distance without the use of electrical conductors or " Wires quot 3's Puff the Barbarian, including an 80s rock-style song and parody of Conan the Barbarian, alluding to open documentation. Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian, from the name of his homeland Cimmeria) is a Fictional character often associated with

In addition to the slogans used on tee-shirts and posters for releases, the project occasionally produces other material: over the years, catchphrases have included "Sending script kiddies to /dev/null since 1995," "Functional, secure, free - choose 3," "Secure by default," and a few insider slogans, only available on tee-shirts made for developer gatherings, such as "World class security for much less than the price of a cruise missile" and a crusty old octopus proclaiming "Shut up and hack!"

Books

A number of books on OpenBSD have been published, including:

• The OpenBSD Command-Line Companion, 1st ed. by Jacek Artymiak. A catch phrase (or catchphrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance In Hacker culture, a script kiddie (as opposed to " Speed kiddie " occasionally script bunny, skiddie, script kitty In Unix-like Operating systems /dev/null or the null device is a Special file that discards all data written to it (but reports that A cruise missile is a guided Missile that carries an explosive payload and uses a lifting wing and a propulsion system usually a Jet engine, to allow ISBN 83-916651-8-6.
• Building Firewalls with OpenBSD and PF: Second Edition by Jacek Artymiak. ISBN 83-916651-1-9.
• Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security by Yanek Korff, Paco Hope and Bruce Potter. ISBN 0-596-00626-8.
• Absolute OpenBSD, Unix for the Practical Paranoid by Michael W. Absolute OpenBSD UNIX for the Practical Paranoid is book about the Unix-like OpenBSD Operating system, written by Michael W Lucas. ISBN 1-886411-99-9.
• Secure Architectures with OpenBSD by Brandon Palmer and Jose Nazario. ISBN 0-321-19366-0.
• The OpenBSD PF Packet Filter Book: PF for NetBSD, FreeBSD, DragonFly and OpenBSD published by Reed Media Services. ISBN 0-9790342-0-5.
• Building Linux and OpenBSD Firewalls by Wes Sonnenreich and Tom Yates. ISBN 0-471-35366-3.
• The OpenBSD 4.0 Crash Course by Jem Matzan. ISBN 0-596-51015-2.
• The Book of PF A No-Nonsense Guide to the OpenBSD Firewall by Peter N. M. Hansteen ISBN-13 978-1-59327-165-7.

See also

• BSD Authentication
• BSD and GPL licensing
• Comparison of BSD operating systems
• Comparison of operating systems
• Comparison of open source operating systems
• Hackathon
• KAME project
• List of OpenBSD developers
• POSSE project
• Security focused operating system

Notes and references

External links

• OpenBSD's homepage
• OpenSSH's homepage
• OpenNTPD's homepage
• OpenBGPD's homepage
• OpenCVS's homepage
• OpenBSD journal
• Unofficial OpenBSD ports tracker
• OpenBSD 101
• #openbsd on freenode