• Botched caesarean (10%, 15 votes)
• Evil spirits (3%, 5 votes)
• Rare infant gout (0%, 1 vote)
• Hippo (1%, 2 votes)
• One of the plagues (2%, 3 votes)
• Bog sacrifice to ensure harvest (3%, 5 votes)
• Paper cut infection (2%, 4 votes)
• Paper cut mutilation (0%, 0 votes)
• Allergy to wheat (1%, 2 votes)
• Vikings (1%, 2 votes)
• Children's Crusade (2%, 4 votes)
• Adult Crusade mistaken identity (0%, 1 vote)
• Miniature auto-da-fé (0%, 1 vote)
• Time-traveling Honda Civic (3%, 5 votes)
• Named pope, poisoned (0%, 0 votes)
• Named anti-pope, stabbed (2%, 3 votes)
• Failure to yield to oncoming dung cart (2%, 4 votes)
• Vanished as object lesson to surviving siblings (1%, 2 votes)
• Hanged by mistake (2%, 4 votes)
• Poverty-induced gin-overconsumption (1%, 2 votes)
• Angered the king by crying (3%, 5 votes)
• Baked into pie for surviving siblings (2%, 3 votes)
• Quantum-superposition accident (3%, 5 votes)
• Ironically eaten by Jonathan Swift (2%, 4 votes)
• Rockin' Pneumonia and Boogie Woogie Flu (2%, 3 votes)
• To force mother back into estrus (0%, 1 vote)
• Clan feud (1%, 2 votes)
• God smiting some tribe or other (0%, 1 vote)
• Invention of fire (0%, 0 votes)
• Invention of the wheel (0%, 0 votes)
• Invention of radium pacifier (0%, 1 vote)
• Genghis Khan (1%, 2 votes)
• Family chose incorrect side in religious schism (4%, 6 votes)
• Family chose correct side in religious schism (0%, 1 vote)
• Dysentery (4%, 6 votes)
• Dropsy (0%, 1 vote)
• Collateral damage in duel (0%, 0 votes)
• Lost extremely rare infant duel (2%, 4 votes)
• Won extremely rare infant duel (celebration) (0%, 1 vote)
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome (0%, 1 vote)
• Fell afoul of prophesy (2%, 4 votes)
• One too many potions (2%, 4 votes)
• One too few potions (2%, 3 votes)
• Tripped into thresher (0%, 1 vote)
• Killed by jealous siblings for technicolor diaper (0%, 1 vote)
• Usury (0%, 1 vote)
• Wrath (0%, 1 vote)
• Accidentally built into fortification (1%, 2 votes)
• Bad dates (dried fruit) (0%, 0 votes)
• Bad dates (Julian calendar confusion) (7%, 11 votes)

Any experienced C developers among my followers? #BoostsWelcome.

Expat, arguably the world's most popular #XML parser, is understaffed and without funding. As #xz has shown, situations like this are dangerous.

Last month, maintainer Sebastian Pipping put up a plea for help at https://github.com/libexpat/libexpat/blob/R_2_6_2/expat/Changes

(I would help myself, but my C skills barely surpass "Hello, World".)

Found via @timbray - https://cosocial.ca/@timbray/112203547801373427

#libexpat
#SoftwareSupplyChainSecurity #OpenSource #OpenSourceMaintainer
#C

libexpat/expat/Changes at R_2_6_2 · libexpat/libexpat

:herb: Fast streaming XML parser written in C99 with >90% test coverage; moved from SourceForge to GitHub - libexpat/libexpat

^GitHub

Tim Bray

2024-04-02 20:37:47

I think the #xz incident is teaching us that our infrastructure is dangerously fragile in the face of well-organized/funded attackers. The response isn’t “try harder” or “donate to your OSS project”, it needs to be institutional, professional, and at scale.

So, here’s my proposal, called “OSQI”, aimed at starting a how-to discussion: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2024/04/01/OSQI

OSQI

^{ongoing by Tim Bray}