[Qgis-psc] The security project for QGIS

[Vincent Picavet]

Hi PSC,

Oslandia will be launching soon the "Security project for QGIS". I explain the project in details below.

New European regulations like NIS2 and CRA, as well as other international or local regulations ( e.g. CISA ) will be activated within the next couple of years. They require software and software producers to rise their cybersecurity practices. OpenSource softwares, while usually having a special treatment, are concerned too.

As for QGIS, we consider that we are behind what would be sufficient to comply with these regulations. We also do not fulfill requirements coming from our end-users, in terms of overall software quality regarding security, processes in place to ensure trust in the supply chain, and overall security culture in the project.

We have been discussing this topic with clients having large deployments of QGIS and QGIS server, and they stressed the issue, stating that cybersecurity was one of their primary concerns, and that they are willing to see the QGIS project move forward in this area as soon as possible.

Oslandia, with other partners and backed by some of its clients, intends to launch the "Security project for QGIS" soon : we identified key topics where improvements can be done, classified them, and created work packages to work on, with budget estimations. We intend to do a call for funding for this project, in order to get actual improvements over 2025 and 2026.

We intend to work closely with the QGIS community, QGIS.org, interested partners and users. Part of the work are improvements over the current system, other require changes to processes or developer's habits. Working closely with the user and developer's community to raise our security awareness is fully part of the project.

You can see the current draft of the proposal here :
https://pad.oslandia.net/vas3e9TUTQKJVSjTseVXrQ?both#

Please do not share this URL publicly, as it is still a draft, and will be moved to an official web page soon.

We know that this is an ambitious project, and that some parts will be difficult to achieve, but we think that QGIS cannot ignore the current trend in cybersecurity enforcement, and we know that regulations and clients requirements will force us to move forward anyway. Planning ahead and taking the issue seriously with the right amount of resources and efforts seems a better way to go than being constrained to do things in a hurry later on.

We intend to launch the project soon, as some clients want to be able to fund it on 2024 budgets, and start working as early as January. We will first have a direct approach to potential funders and partners though, before making a public call for funding ( most probably before end of 2024 ).

Sponsors for this project will be QGIS users directly funding the project.

Partners for this project will be :
- organizations officially supporting the project and help communicate and raise funds
- organizations contributing time, effort, expertise to help the project
- subcontractors for parts of the project

As for subcontracting, some items are already identified and dedicated to partners, most of them will still have to be defined after.

As for now, apart from Oslandia, OPENGIS.ch is already an official partner.

We wanted to let the PSC / QGIS.org know about the project before enlarging the audience, so that :
- A. you can give us feedback on the project globally, and the content specifically
- B. raise any questions you would like to be answered privately or publicly
- C. indicate your thoughts on how QGIS.org would want to be integrated into the project
- D. validate project name, logo and URL

As for C, we will state clearly that this project is not a QGIS.org initiative, but a project initiated by Oslandia and partners. QGIS.org could be a partner though, and we would be pleased if it is, but it is clearly not mandatory. Your decision, without any pressure ( can be later on too ).
As for budget as well, we do not ask for any contribution from QGIS.org, but QGIS.org could allocate some funding, either as sponsor for items already included in work packages, or for additional complimentary items ( I would rather opt for this option, e.g. everything related to external reviews, community meetings, legal stuff…).
Also, we will recommend for any sponsor willing to contribute less than 5000€, to fund QGIS.org instead through donations, as we do not want to deal with small contributions for this project ( admin burden too high ).

As for D, what we need from PSC ASAP is a validation for us to be allowed to use the following :
- the project name "Security project for QGIS". Note that we avoided naming it "QGIS Security project", to better identify that the project is not initiated by QGIS.org. As said above, we will be clear in the project presentation about affiliation.
- the project logo : https://pad.oslandia.net/uploads/68ed0fc7-a6e3-4a93-8b6a-34ba2335c7dc.png
- the url we intend to use : security.qgis.oslandia.com . Again, it makes no doubt on affiliation.

Should you have any remark on these items, do not hesitate to raise them.

Next step are :
- [x] contact QGIS PSC to present the initiative
- [ ] integrate feedbacks into the project presentation
- [ ] finish project presentation material
- [ ] contact some more potential partners
- [ ] get first pledges from users for WP1
- [ ] launch public call for funding

I am available to discuss the matter, do not hesitate to contact me for further info or discussion.

Best regards,
Vincent



-- 
Vincent Picavet
Président @ oslandia
News : oslandia.com/newsletter
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