FreeBSD Security Officer
2007-Feb-01 23:23 UTC
[FreeBSD-Announce] Security Officer-supported branches update
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Hello Everyone,
The branches supported by the FreeBSD Security Officer have been
updated to reflect recent EoL (end-of-life) events. The new list is
below and at <URL: http://security.freebsd.org/ >. FreeBSD 4.11 and
FreeBSD 6.0 have `expired' and are no longer supported effective
February 1, 2007. Discussions concerning FreeBSD releases which are
no longer supported should take place on the freebsd-eol@freebsd.org
mailing list.
This marks the end of support by the FreeBSD Security Team for the
FreeBSD 4-STABLE branch, two years after FreeBSD 4.11-RELEASE and
almost seven years after FreeBSD 4.0-RELEASE. For an explanation of
the rationale behind the EoL of FreeBSD 4.11 (and the 4-STABLE branch),
please see my earlier mailing list post on this subject:
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-security/2006-October/004111.html
At this point, support for running software from the ports tree on
FreeBSD 4.x is ceasing: Packages for binary installations will no
longer be built for FreeBSD 4.11, building ports from source on FreeBSD
4.x will no longer be supported, and the ports INDEX will no longer be
built and made available via portsnap or the 'make fetchindex' target.
Patches for individual ports specific for their functioning on FreeBSD
4.11 may still be accepted at the discretion of the port maintainer.
[Excerpt from http://security.freebsd.org/ follows]
FreeBSD Security Advisories
The FreeBSD Security Officer provides security advisories for
several branches of FreeBSD development. These are the -STABLE
Branches and the Security Branches. (Advisories are not issued for
the -CURRENT Branch.)
* There is usually only a single -STABLE branch, although during
the transition from one major development line to another
(such as from FreeBSD 5.x to 6.x), there is a time span in
which there are two -STABLE branches. The -STABLE branch tags
have names like RELENG_6. The corresponding builds have names
like FreeBSD 6.1-STABLE.
* Each FreeBSD Release has an associated Security Branch. The
Security Branch tags have names like RELENG_6_1. The
corresponding builds have names like FreeBSD 6.1-RELEASE-p1.
Isses affecting the FreeBSD Ports Collection are covered in the
FreeBSD VuXML document.
Each branch is supported by the Security Officer for a limited
time only, and is designated as one of `Early adopter', `Normal',
or `Extended'. The designation is used as a guideline for
determining the lifetime of the branch as follows.
Early adopter
Releases which are published from the -CURRENT branch will be
supported by the Security Officer for a minimum of 6 months
after the release.
Normal
Releases which are published from a -STABLE branch will be
supported by the Security Officer for a minimum of 12 months
after the release.
Extended
Selected releases will be supported by the Security Officer
for a minimum of 24 months after the release.
The current designation and estimated lifetimes of the currently
supported branches are given below. The Estimated EoL (end-of-life)
column gives the earliest date on which that branch is likely to be
dropped. Please note that these dates may be extended into the
future, but only extenuating circumstances would lead to a branch's
support being dropped earlier than the date listed.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Branch | Release | Type | Release date | Estimated EoL |
|-----------+------------+--------+----------------+-----------------|
|RELENG_5 |n/a |n/a |n/a |May 31, 2008 |
|-----------+------------+--------+----------------+-----------------|
|RELENG_5_5 |5.5-RELEASE |Extended|May 25, 2006 |May 31, 2008 |
|-----------+------------+--------+----------------+-----------------|
|RELENG_6 |n/a |n/a |n/a |last release + 2y|
|-----------+------------+--------+----------------+-----------------|
|RELENG_6_1 |6.1-RELEASE |Extended|May 9, 2006 |May 31, 2008 |
|-----------+------------+--------+----------------+-----------------|
|RELENG_6_2 |6.2-RELEASE |Normal |January 15, 2007|January 31, 2008 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[End excerpt]
Colin Percival
FreeBSD Security Officer
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