Re: unhappy about overloading finger

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#189

From: Rahul Dhesi
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1992 21:17

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In <dag.712016415@ossi.com> dag@ossi.com (Darren Alex Griffiths) writes:

>This allows the pond scum who try and 
>break into systems to get a list off all users and then attempt to crack the
>password for each of these users.  Even worse, [you can find idle usernames].

Isn't this carrying security by obscurity just a bit too far?  In
today's networking world, finding usernames is too easy.  Just scan
Usenet and collect email addresses -- you can build up a HUGE
collection in a day.  If you want idle usenames, well, do another scan
a month later, and look for the ones that aren't found any more.
-- 
Rahul Dhesi <dhesi@cirrus.com>
also: dhesi@rahul.net
"He's metabolically challenged, Jim."

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Message-ID: <1992Jul26.211735.5134@cirrus.com>

Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!indetech!cirrus!dhesi

References: <1992Jul24.100650.9235@nntpd.lkg.dec.com> <dag.712016415@ossi.com>

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Newsgroups: comp.security.misc
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!indetech!cirrus!dhesi
From: dhesi@cirrus.com (Rahul Dhesi)
Subject: Re: unhappy about overloading finger
Message-ID: <1992Jul26.211735.5134@cirrus.com>
Sender: news@cirrus.com
Organization: Cirrus Logic Inc.
References: <1992Jul24.100650.9235@nntpd.lkg.dec.com> <dag.712016415@ossi.com>
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1992 21:17:35 GMT
Lines: 15

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