usa@portia.Stanford.EDU (Nan Wu) (09/22/90)
I am posting this for a friend who cannot send mails because the system manager doesn't want people to read messages and thus has disabled the Berkeley "mail" program. However, the sendmail daemon is still running. His question is: can he get the source code for the "mail" program so that he can at least send out messages through sendmail daemon? The machine he is on is a Dec-station 3100 running Ultrix. He'll appreciate any pointers. Please e-mail to this account. Thanks!
rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) (09/22/90)
In article <1990Sep21.171510.3817@portia.Stanford.EDU> usa@portia.Stanford.EDU (Nan Wu) writes: >I am posting this for a friend who cannot send mails because the system >manager doesn't want people to read messages and thus has disabled the >Berkeley "mail" program. However, the sendmail daemon is still running. >His question is: can he get the source code for the "mail" program so >that he can at least send out messages through sendmail daemon? The >machine he is on is a Dec-station 3100 running Ultrix. He'll appreciate >any pointers. Please e-mail to this account. Thanks! 1. Are you asking us to tell you how to bypass security and do an and run around the system manager? No way. Asking is ethically questionable. 2. It the manager wants to restrict users, he has two choices: (a) Pull the plug. (b) Start using a different operating system. Unix wasn't designed for these restrictions. For example if the Berkeley "mail" program you are referring to is /usr/ucb/Mail, all it does is provide a tolerably friendly front end to do things you could perfectly well do with a text editor. -- =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science <rickert@cs.niu.edu> Northern Illinois Univ. DeKalb, IL 60115. +1-815-753-6940
jgd@rsiatl.UUCP (John G. DeArmond) (09/22/90)
rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes: > 1. Are you asking us to tell you how to bypass security and > do an and run around the system manager? No way. Asking > is ethically questionable. There's always one of these on the net, isn't there? A cop wannabe. *sigh* >In article <1990Sep21.171510.3817@portia.Stanford.EDU> usa@portia.Stanford.EDU (Nan Wu) writes: >I am posting this for a friend who cannot send mails because the system >manager doesn't want people to read messages and thus has disabled the >Berkeley "mail" program. However, the sendmail daemon is still running. >His question is: can he get the source code for the "mail" program so >that he can at least send out messages through sendmail daemon? The >machine he is on is a Dec-station 3100 running Ultrix. He'll appreciate >any pointers. Please e-mail to this account. Thanks! I'll give you a straight answer because not only do I realize that security by obscurity is no security at all but also because I realize that many sysadms are not in the chain of command and end up being pricks just to show that they can. I looked through my archives and found at least half a dozen mail agents. From BSD, there is ucb mail and the sendmail daemon. Then there are ELM, MUSH, and ACS among others. These are available from UUNET and/or the BSD distribution. If you or your friend looks on UUNET, prowl around ~ftp/bsd-sources/src/Mail or thereabouts. If all else fails, contact me by email and we can arrange a media exchange. John -- John De Armond, WD4OQC | We can no more blame our loss of freedom on congress Radiation Systems, Inc. | than we can prostitution on pimps. Both simply Atlanta, Ga | provide broker services for their customers. {emory,uunet}!rsiatl!jgd| - Dr. W Williams | **I am the NRA**
jsd@GAFFA.MIT.EDU (the leather creaks and the god speaks) (09/23/90)
In article <4072@rsiatl.UUCP> jgd@rsiatl.UUCP (John G. DeArmond) writes: >>In article <1990Sep21.171510.3817@portia.Stanford.EDU> usa@portia.Stanford.EDU (Nan Wu) writes: >>I am posting this for a friend who cannot send mails because the system >>manager doesn't want people to read messages and thus has disabled the >>Berkeley "mail" program. However, the sendmail daemon is still running. > >I'll give you a straight answer because not only do I realize that >security by obscurity is no security at all but also because I realize >that many sysadms are not in the chain of command and end up being pricks >just to show that they can. Cheers, John. Thumbs up. To answer the original question - it is important to know if you can still run the program sendmail. As long as you can execute that, then you are all set. All that mail does is give you a nice front end. Compose a text file in appropriate RFC-822 format and send it straight into sendmail, with the -t option (which will cause sendmail to scan the file for recipients). In fact, this message is being posted via a small script I wrote that adds a few header lines and sends a file to the netnews posting agent. For some reason, the posting software around MIT can take up to five minutes to do its work. I found that rather obstructive. +---------------------- Is there any ESCAPE from NOISE? ---------------------+ | | |\ | jsd@gaffa.mit.edu | ZIK ZAK - We make everything you need, | | \|on |/rukman | -Fight The Power- | and you need everything we make. | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+