Oracle and setting the record straight

[David Litchfield]

Hey all,
I don't know whether this helps serve any purpose or not, other than the
vent some of my own frustrations; however...

In the wake of the release of Alex Kornbrust's details on some Oracle flaws
there has been some discussion in various places about when I supposedly did
the same thing last year at Blackhat - i.e. release information on Oracle
bugs in the absence of a vendor supplied patch.

For the record, I did _not_ do this.

So, setting the record straight: I was due to present a talk that centered
around a batch of Oracle vulnerabilities at Blackhat last year. I gave
Oracle a heads up and explained that I intended to do so and questioned
whether the patches would be ready. On the day of the talk I was informed by
Oracle that the patches were not ready and so when I got up on the stage I
proceeeded to tell everyone exactly why I could no longer do the talk. i.e.
I can't do the talk because Oracle failed to patch the problems I was going
to talk about.

I did not discuss in any form or fashion the actual bugs.

Cheers and apologies to those who really don't care,
David Litchfield
NGSSoftware
http://www.ngssoftware.com/

[Adam Laurie]

David Litchfield wrote:
> Hey all,
> I don't know whether this helps serve any purpose or not, other than the
> vent some of my own frustrations; however...
>
> In the wake of the release of Alex Kornbrust's details on some Oracle
> flaws there has been some discussion in various places about when I
> supposedly did the same thing last year at Blackhat - i.e. release
> information on Oracle bugs in the absence of a vendor supplied patch.
>
> For the record, I did _not_ do this.
>
> So, setting the record straight: I was due to present a talk that
> centered around a batch of Oracle vulnerabilities at Blackhat last year.
> I gave Oracle a heads up and explained that I intended to do so and
> questioned whether the patches would be ready. On the day of the talk I
> was informed by Oracle that the patches were not ready and so when I got
> up on the stage I proceeeded to tell everyone exactly why I could no
> longer do the talk. i.e. I can't do the talk because Oracle failed to
> patch the problems I was going to talk about.
>
> I did not discuss in any form or fashion the actual bugs.

FWIW, I was there, and can confirm that this is true. Indeed, Dave was
put in a very awkward position, having to pull most of the content of
his talk at the last minute...

cheers,
Adam
--
Adam Laurie Tel: +44 (0) 20 7605 7000
The Bunker Secure Hosting Ltd. Fax: +44 (0) 20 7605 7099
Shepherds Building http://www.thebunker.net
Rockley Road
London W14 0DA mailto:adam@thebunker.net
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