22 Facts About OpenBSD

OpenBSD is a security-focused, free and open-source, Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution.

OpenBSD project maintains portable versions of many subsystems as packages for other operating systems.

Several proprietary systems are based on OpenBSD, including devices from Armorlogic, Calyptix Security, GeNUA, RTMX, and.

Shortly after OpenBSD was created, De Raadt was contacted by a local security software company named Secure Networks.

OpenBSD includes numerous features designed to improve security, such as:.

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Privilege separation is a technique, pioneered on OpenBSD and inspired by the principle of least privilege, where a program is split into two or more parts, one of which performs privileged operations and the other—almost always the bulk of the code—runs without privilege.

OpenBSD developers were instrumental in the creation and development of OpenSSH, which is developed in the OpenBSD CVS repositories.

One of the fundamental ideas behind OpenBSD is a drive for systems to be simple, clean, and secure by default.

OpenBSD characterized the developer community's attitude to components as: "When the community decides that some module sucks, they develop a new one from scratch.

OpenBSD includes a number of third-party components, many with OpenBSD-specific patches, such as X Org, Clang, GCC, Perl, NSD, Unbound, ncurses, GNU binutils, GDB, and AWK.

Generic OpenBSD kernel provided by default is strongly recommended for end users, in contrast to operating systems that recommend user kernel customization.

When OpenBSD was created, De Raadt decided that the source code should be available for anyone to read.

OpenBSD is notable for its continued use of CVS, when most other projects that used it have migrated to other systems.

Since OpenBSD is based in Canada, no United States export restrictions on cryptography apply, allowing the distribution to make full use of modern algorithms for encryption.

OpenBSD maintains a strict license policy, preferring the ISC license and other variants of the BSD license.

At the time, Bernstein requested that all modified versions of his code be approved by him prior to redistribution, a requirement to which OpenBSD developers were unwilling to devote time or effort.

For example, OpenBSD developers created the PF packet filter after unacceptable restrictions were imposed on IPFilter.

OpenBSD developers have replaced GPL-licensed tools with permissively licensed equivalents.

Since 2014, several large contributions to the OpenBSD Foundation have come from corporations such as Microsoft, Facebook, and Google as well as the Core Infrastructure Initiative.

OpenBSD is freely available in various ways: the source can be retrieved by anonymous CVS, and binary releases and development snapshots can be downloaded by FTP, HTTP, and rsync.

OpenBSD provides a package management system for easy installation and management of programs which are not part of the base operating system.

Promotional material of early OpenBSD releases did not have a cohesive theme or design, but later the CD-ROMs, release songs, posters and tee-shirts for each release have been produced with a single style and theme, sometimes contributed to by Ty Semaka of the Plaid Tongued Devils.