Mission

Fedora Security Special Interest Group (SIG)

Fedora's Security SIG is no separated SIG but it is integrated into the community, and associates and connects contributors and other SIGs that impact security, but also aims to embed security perspectives into other teams and SIGs.

The Security SIG offers a point of exchange and to connect with. It allows users and contributors to have a place where they can go to when it comes to making aware of or discussing security matters, it brings different perspectives in the security discussions together, it embeds security-perspectives into the community and facilitates feedback loops into all areas of Fedora with consolidated security-relevant knowledge.

With the Security SIG as core element, it replaces the former Security Team along with other SIGs and Teams. The Security SIG complements but does not yet replace the Red Hat Product Security.

Contact

The Security SIG has currently two dedicated places to connect and to exchange:

• Matrix channel: #security:fedoraproject.org (Direct Link to Fedora Chat)
• Discourse tag: #security-sig (category Project Discussion in Discourse)

Additionally, experience has shown that the Devel Mailing List has evolved to a major point of exchange and coordination in security matters (e.g., the major point of coordination of the "early hours" of the XZUtils case has become the Devel Mailing List).

Feel free to join the Matrix channel or open a topic with the #security-sig tag in Discourse if there is anything with regards to security you want to discuss, but also consider the Devel Mailing List. The Security SIG is overlapping and intertwined with the Devel Mailing List (so are its contributions).

Some other SIGs with a security emphasis have subordinated themselves within Discourse to the security-tag and have become themselves sub-tags of #security-sig in order to associate themselves with the #security-sig (and thus to connect their debates). So far, these are:

• the #confined-users tag of #security-sig
• the #incident-response tag of #security-sig -> at the moment, the #incident-response SIG/team is to be set up. The tag is monitored by a few Discourse moderators but nothing dedicated yet.

Keep in mind that the communication channels of the Security SIG are public and thus all information shared in these channels is public too. Because the Security SIG is not yet intended to replace the Red Hat Product Security, you might also consider to contact them if your case involves information that should not yet become public (which usually applies if the information can be exploited practically & immediately to conduct attacks against Fedora or other users). Yet, even in such cases, you are encouraged to early let the Security SIG know that you have contacted the Red Hat Product Security because of a given case, without providing information about the case itself.

Getting involved

All users, contributors and SIGs/teams are encouraged to create ties to the Security SIG to introduce a security perspective in their activities and vice versa. Feel free to join the Matrix channel, open a Discourse topic with the respective tag, or if you create a Discourse topic for your own organization, feel free to additionally add a respective tag that is associated with the Security SIG if you would like to get a security perspective about the very matter.

It is also always useful to follow the Devel Mailing List (and contribute if applicable).

If you want to add further sub-tags within the #security-sig in Discourse, feel free to open a topic about it in the Site Help & Feedback category and let the moderators know about your suggestion.

Contact

If you need help or assistance with any issue, please feel free to contact the FST members at

• IRC:
  • #fedora-security^[?] - Security Team IRC channel

• Mailing lists:
  • security - Security Team mailing list

• Weekly meetings:
  • Every Thursday at 14:00 UTC. -> Schedule and Agenda

Security Response

To report a vulnerability in software please follow the procedure outlined on the Security Bugs page.

To report a security concern within the Fedora Project please email security at fedoraproject dot org.

What we do

Fedora Security Team (FST) has several missions that try to overlap to make Fedora a more secure operating environment. The following sub-teams exist inside the FST:

• Vulnerability Patching Assistance
• Security Response
• Secure Coding
• Code Auditing

Vulnerability Patching Assistance

The main goal of this sub-team is to make sure that known vulnerabilities are patched and shipped in a timely manner. By assisting package maintainers with patches it is hoped that vulnerability fixes can make to user systems before they become victim of an attack.

Security Response

The Security Response sub-team is charged with responding to new vulnerabilities. This team is still in development and Fedora currently relies on the services of Red Hat Product Security to process, work with upstream, and work with packagers to address security vulnerabilities.

Secure Coding

Keeping vulnerabilities from being written in the first place should be the goal of any good security team and this team is no different. We strive to create documentation that explains how to avoid common pitfalls in software development and attempt to answer any questions that come our way.

Code Auditing

Another service we'd like to offer in the future, code auditing will hopefully find vulnerabilities in code before a cracker can take advantage.

How to get involved

Joining the team

Joining the Fedora Security Team is an easy, three-step process:

1. subscribe to the security mailing list,
2. join us on the #fedora-security^[?] IRC channel,
3. take a look at the Security Team Tasks, and
4. read the work flow.

Once you feel comfortable just jump in and start helping. If you have questions please ask on IRC or on the mailing list.

Also, please take a look at the proposed Security Team Apprenticeship program as this may help answer additional questions.