cURL and libcurl

So the Department of Energy emailed me

3 Comments

I received an email today. What follows is a slightly edited version (for brevity).

From: DOE Attestation <doe.attestation@hq.doe.gov>
Subject: [ACTION REQUIRED] U.S. Department of Energy Secure Software Development Attestation Submission Request

OMB Control No. 1670-0052
Expires: 03/31/2027

Hello Haxx

** The following communication contains important DOE Secure Software Development Attestation Submission instructions. Please read this communication in its entirety. **

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has identified your company's software as affected by this request. The list of impacted software products and versions can be found below.

DOE Request:

In support of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requirement to collect attestations per M-22-18, please complete the U.S. Department of Energy Secure Software Development Attestation Form (DOE Common Form). If you are unable to attest to all secure software development framework (SSDF) practices, please be sure to attach your Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M). The software listed below has been identified as being associated with your company and requires DOE to collect an attestation for the software.

Product Name   Version Number

libcurl        8.3

The U.S. Department of Energy Secure Software Development Attestation Form (DOE Common Form) can be found at DOE F 205.2 Secure Software Development Attestation Form. The DOE Common Form identifies the minimum secure software development requirements a Software Producer must meet, and attest to meeting, before software subject to the requirements of M-22-18 as updated by M-23-16, may be used by Federal agencies. This form is used by Software Producers to attest that the software they produce is developed in conformity with specified secure software development practices and standards.

Regards,

DOE OCIO C-SCRM Team

Don’t you just love the personal touch in the signature in the end?

I could add that I have never been in contact with them before. I did not know they use libcurl before this email. I do not know what they use it for.

I find it amusing they insist this is “required” .

My response

I am not impossible and I will not deny them this information. So I pressed reply and immediately sent an answer back.

Hello Department of Energy,

I cannot find that you are an existing customer of ours, so we cannot fulfill this request.

libcurl is a product we work on. It is open source and licensed under an MIT-like license in which the distribution and use conditions are clearly stated.

If you contact support@wolfssl.com we can remedy this oversight and can then arrange for all the paperwork and attestations you need.

Thanks,

/ Daniel

Related

Other emails I have received. NASA emailed me.

Discussion

On hacker news.

3 thoughts on “So the Department of Energy emailed me”

  1. Interesting that you replied. I would have ignored it. You’re under no obligation to the DoE or any other 3 letter agency.

  2. A community I’m involved with received the same earlier this year. I reached out to USA CISA and got confirmation that this form was sent in error and that some government agencies are confused about how they’re supposed to handle internal reporting for recent security requirements when it comes to FLOSS projects (the corresponding CISA form clearly indicates that such software is out of scope). It was suggested any similar incidents be brought to the CISA’s attention via E-mail to their open source program office contact address, since this will assist them in getting a better handle on these problems.

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