🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <FRITZZ.92Aug14174337@ko.ldgo.columbia.edu>
fritzz@lamont.ldgo.columbia.edu writes:

> Wasn't there a virus spread by legally sold software for the Mac?  By
> the way, an older version of GNU Emacs (which is running at the site
> who requested that info) installed some program as setuid root by
> mistake and created a major security hole.

can't speak for the Mac bit, but I can say that some commercial software
I got was quickly recalled by the company when they discovered that the
machines that do their bulk copying were infected with a rather nasty
virus.  the copy I had checked out clean, but (obviously) they didn't
want to take any chances....

people who insist on using only commercial software are simply being
drawn into a false sense of security.  it's as simple as that.  yes,
there are risks when using any software, PD, shareware, commercial,
or anything in between.  the solution is not banning such software....
the solution is a good backup strategy (this covers hardware failures,
too).

as for the problem of software containing security holes, compare the
number of CERT advisories that deal with the commercial UN*X OS code
to those dealing with software from the net.  the higher visibility
most certainly plays a role in this, but.....

still, the worst security hole on UN*X systems is by far a combination
of bad system administration and users who aren't concerned about
security.  on my workstation at work, which is already protected by a
couple of firewalls, I frequently run (some via cron, some manual)
checks on the system.  I do things like checking for easily guessed
passwords (I have the system hard-coded not to reveal the password
that was guessed...just that it WAS guessed), .rhosts files, entries
in /etc/passwd that shouldn't be there (like a user with a UID of 0,
a user with NO password, etc.), and so on.

gee, I've really gotten off the topic, haven't I?  well, I've spent
too much time here reading/typing news.....I suppose it's time to
look at the other half of the newsgroups, then get onto something
better, like the latest book I just bought to add to the long queue
of books I want to read.....

to the original poster:  good luck.  sounds like you'll need it.
   --jim

--
Standard disclaimer....Ever since my cat learned to type, there's no telling
whose thoughts these really are....         73 DE N5IAL (/9)
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