🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Aug19.145655.8372@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> szatezal@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Shane M Zatezalo) writes:
>(please, no flames here)
>
>Would it be possible for someone to spread a virus via NeXTMail?
>

Something Stephen Wrightish:  I sent myself a virus, must be my infectious
humor.  

Yes I think that you could send a virus this way.  I just tried sending myself
and executable which I double-clicked and launched.  NeXT Mail is at least 
smart enough to alert you that the attachment is executable.  Since I knew 
what I sent myself, I wasn't too worried. But it did execute.  Suppose I
could have been stupid and had it unlink my directories. :-{

Bill Murphy               | Old Home Cottage Cheese:  The only cottage 
			  | cheese that's not made from formaldehyde, 
murphy@physics.purdue.edu | arsenic, or rodent parts.

In article <1992Aug19.145655.8372@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> szatezal@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Shane M Zatezalo) writes:
>Would it be possible for someone to spread a virus via NeXTMail?
>It seems as though if a person threw a destructive program in the mail,
>and an unknowing user launched it right from his/her mailbox, a lot of
>damage could be done.

Assuming the person was unknowing and launched anything they got in the mail.

That seems easy enough. Although it seems more trojan horse than virus.
  To be effective, you'd need the virus, once launched, that way do things like:
    1) [deleted]
    2) [deleted]
    3) [deleted]
    4) [deleted]

Soon you should have many people with very full mailboxes.

There have also been rumours of people working on Postscript viruses.
  But those would only work if you are a public window server (I think).

A possible kludge for this would be to have NeXTMail check for dangerous
  commands to execute (like Cnews does now) since it must extract/uudecode
  the inclusion before executing it.

   =====

After further thought, I deleted the exact procedure of how you would write
  a NeXTmail virus above. I don't want to cause people any inconvienience.
  But, if you think hard enough, it takes about 1/2 hour to write.

DISCLAIMER: I do not condone this type of activity. I am only posting this
  because I believe this to be a very important security problem that was
  created _unintentionally_ (as most security holes are. And this needs to
  be addressed.

-- 
===========================================================================
 Mr. Heiji Horde    (Non NeXT mail only please)     e-mail: horde@reed.edu
   All insane acts are done in affiliation with Madd Hacker Enterprises
               "ALL ABOARD, the lunacy train is pulling out."

Heiji Horde <horde@reed.edu> writes:
>In article [...] szatezal@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Shane M Zatezalo) writes:
>> Would it be possible for someone to spread a virus via NeXTMail?
>
> There have also been rumours of people working on Postscript viruses.

Well, I don't know of people *working* on them, but I'm sure they *are*
possible. I've explained how I think they can be done in a previous
posting, so I won't bother saying again this time.

> But those would only work if you are a public window server (I think).

Wrong (from what I can tell).

You can really do easy damage if someone has re-enabled the file operators
by typing 'dwrite Mail _NXBypassNSC YES' in a terminal window, but this
has nothing to do with "Public Window Server".

"Public Window Server" controls who can access the window server. Since
the EPS mail-bomb is run by mail with your user-id, this has 'security
feature' has preventative effect on mail-bombs.

Regards,

    Richard.
-- 
Composing a suitably apt and witty | richard@smaug.questor.wimsey.bc.ca
signature and disclaimer is left   | oneill@fornax.UUCP | NeXTmail OK, but
as an exercise for the reader.     | oneill@cs.sfu.ca   | not >100K OK!

In article <1992Aug19.232002.17662@reed.edu> horde@reed.edu (Mr. Heiji Horde) writes:
>In article <1992Aug19.145655.8372@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> szatezal@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Shane M Zatezalo) writes:
>>Would it be possible for someone to spread a virus via NeXTMail?
>>It seems as though if a person threw a destructive program in the mail,
>>and an unknowing user launched it right from his/her mailbox, a lot of
>>damage could be done.
>
>Assuming the person was unknowing and launched anything they got in the mail.

At least in 3.0 PR2 Mail, if you double-click an executable in a mail message,
a Caution Panel opens, but it's message is pretty mild:

"This file is executable"

The Panel allows the user to continue or cancel.  But I'd suggest a stronger
message (maybe the 3.0 release is better in this respect).
-- 

Art Isbell                                                      Cubic Solutions
NeXT Registered Developer #745         NeXT software development and consulting
Email: isbell@cats.UCSC.EDU                                Voice: (408)335-1154
USmail: 95018-9442                                           Fax: (408)335-2515