🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <WESOMMER.92Sep7144915@bill-the-cat.mit.edu>, wesommer@mit.edu (Bill Sommerfeld) writes:
|> In article <18g4c7INNihj@matt.ksu.ksu.edu> holland@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Rich Holland) writes:
|> 
|>    Ross Ridge <ross@zooid.guild.org> writes:
|> 
|>    >While this would be what I'd do, even this isn't 100% guaranteed if
|>    >someone has broken security on the machine.  It's possible, for instance,
|>    >that the mount command, shell or even kernel has been hacked to prevent
|>    >tripwire from doing it's job properly.
|> 
|>    *shaking head*  Man, some people can get just a LITTLE too paranoid!
|> 
|>    ...
|> 
|>    ...some people need a better sense of reality! 
|> 
|> You're one of them :-) 
|> 
|> For the record, there have been a number of instances of break-ins on
|> the Internet involving hacked operating systems software..  typically
|> /bin/login and/or telnet and/or telnetd.
|> 
|> Hacking the shell isn't too much harder than hacking any other
|> user-mode program.
|> 
|> It's a *lot* harder to replace write-protected boot media in a locked
|> cabinet through the network.
|> 
|> Multics, one of the most usable of secure systems (and most secure of
|> usuable systems), was always booted from a write-protected *tape*,
|> which contained the boot loader, kernel-equivalent, shared libraries,
|> and critical commands.
|> --

And even Multics fell victim to a hacked shell at one point in its life.
I recall a case back in '69 or thereabouts when one of the system 
administrators was given a hacked shell that displayed a convincing
error message and then hung up the modem.   That administrator spent
several days looking for a system bug, before discovering the hacked
shell.

Just because you're paranoid, DOESN'T mean that they aren't out to
get you, anyway!