Zero-trust builds for FreeBSD

The FreeBSD Foundationhas announced that it has undertaken a project to deliver zero-trustbuilds commissioned by the Sovereign Tech Agency (STA).

The Zero-Trust Build project is scheduled from Jan-Aug 2025 andcenters on the FreeBSD build process, and in particular, releasebuilding. The primary goal of this work is to enable the entirerelease process to run without requiring root access, and that buildartifacts build reproducibly - that is, that a third party can buildbit-for-bit identical artifacts.

Additionally, the project aims to enhance build processdocumentation, ensuring that release building is straightforward anddoes not require specialized knowledge. The work is targeted forcompletion prior to the release of FreeBSD 15.0.

The Foundation says that updates should not impact users of FreeBSDrelease images, but it may have an impact on developers basingprojects or products on FreeBSD that make modifications to its releaseprocess.