Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

It seems to be extrapolated from open crypto code, which is a unique example. Nobody goes around volunteering security reviews of CRUD apps like they do for interesting crypto.

If you're open sourcing stuff that other people use, it makes sense, because people fix security issues from using software, fixing bugs and witnessing failures, and needing the fixes for themselves. Not from going 'wow, that's 500 repositories, most of which I don't care about at all'. You're not going to go fix the issues you just saw, are you?

In this case, Coinbase open-sourced some useful code (with an install-this-one-liner), and details of a systematic security method that other people can also use themselves, critique and improve on. The difficulty of breaking their setup hasn't changed, simply by knowing that the keys/MFA combo you really want is a different one. You'd still need to steal it. Perfect example of helping security by transparency.




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: