Tor Software Down to Zero Bugs

Jan 13, 2009

The Tor Project announces that it has removed all bugs that Coverity Scan had found in its software.

The Tor Project (The Onion Router) announced in its blog that all the bugs that Coverity Scan static analysis found in its software were reduced to zero. The analysts had found 171 bugs in September that Tor developers have been successively fixing.
The Tor software has been anonymizing Internet traffic since a few years, a technique that defends against traffic surveillance by using the onion principle: encrypt and decrypt traffic over a network of distributed and untraceable proxy servers. For some users, such as bloggers in repressive regimes, the software can be literally life saving.
Coverity is a company that specializes in uncovering bugs with the help of some pinpoint software. For some open source firms the cost of using Coverity Scan hasn't been cheap, although the software has been provided for free under various sponsorship. A list of open source projects that have undergone the Coverity Scan is here, although the actual results are missing apparently because Coverity, by some blogger accounts, doesn't always keep its website up to date.
To try Tor for yourself, download it from here. However, many Linux distros already include Tor packages. For security purposes, first deactivate Java and JavaScript in your browser and combine Tor with the Privoxy web proxy.

Related content

  • Tor and Privoxy

    Internet users typically reveal their IP addresses, and this lets companies compile a profile of your Internet activities. Tor and Privoxy can help protect your privacy.

    more »
  • P2P Networks

    Many users associate the term P2P with BitTorrent and the (not always legal) exchange of files. But peer-to-peer networks offer an option for anonymously offering websites and other services. We examine five popular alternatives for P2P networking.

    more »
  • Trackbacks in Drupal

    Trackbacks offer a simple means for bloggers to connect and share information.

    more »
  • Web Tricks

    Busy web developers are always looking for an edge. This month we explore some tricks for faster and more effective websites.

    more »
  • Coverity: Open Source Code has Fewer Defects

    Annual code quality report shows FOSS is more secure at all project size levels.

    more »

Comments

  • Steve Jobs just died!

    The subject is not true, but that's ok, because it is just an attention grabber?
    @ccady: Is this what you meant?
    To me a journalist has a special responsibility, because he multiplies information and turns them to news. His mission should be to report the facts and put them into context.
    This CAN NOT work if part of the article, the most important, namely his headline is deliberately misleading.
    Journalism at large is in a very sorry state, for many reasons. We don't need poor journalism covering free and opensource software, too.

  • What is the point of the original poster?

    I am not asking the original poster, I don't think there is a point, but why do they populate the comment sections so often? Anybody got any ideas?

  • Duh

    It is quite clear to me that the headline is an attention grabber, and that the article speaks clearly to the fact that Tor has all the Coverity-found bugs removed. It is obvious to most readers that there might still be other bugs that Coverity did not find. Don't blame the author. The article is fine.

  • Journalist down to zero knowledge?

    It is even WORSE if you deliberately wrote a wrong and misleading headline.

  • Thats why...

    ...I wrote two times: "...all bugs that coverity scan found..."

  • Let me be the first to call b&**$$!t

    Sorry, there is no such thing as (useful) bug free code. Any code with more than a single nop has some kind of bug lurking. You should know better than that
comments powered by Disqus

Issue 272/2023

Buy this issue as a PDF

Digital Issue: Price $12.99
(incl. VAT)

Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters

News

Tag Cloud

Administration Community Desktop Events Hardware Linux Linux Pro Magazine Mobile Programming Software Ubuntu Web Development Windows free software open source