[news.admin] Forged news article <4500@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu>

flee@shire.cs.psu.edu (Felix Lee) (04/25/89)

Article <4500@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu> in soc.net-people is a forgery.
Not particularly exciting, but a forgery nonetheless.

I found this out after I started getting mail messages from echo
servers about a posting in alt.test from news@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu.
Aren't echo servers wonderful?

There were four forged messages in all: the first three in test
groups, leading up to the fourth in soc.net-people.  The forger
transmitted the articles from an Annex terminal server, and I can't
trace backwards from there.  (Anyone can get to the terminal server.)

I'm afraid this article is practically an invitation to use psuvax1 to
forge news, but I'm not particularly excited about plugging up holes.
Maybe when we upgrade to News 3.0 or C News...

Well, if you must forge news, remember that many hosts echo articles
in test groups back to the (purported) originator.  Try to limit your
experiments to local or regional test groups.  And please, don't
everyone use psuvax1.  I'm sure there's a host closer to you that you
can use.

Anyone who wants to know more about forging news, send me a note.
Forging news is about as exciting as mailing subscription cards for
somebody else :-)
--
Felix Lee	flee@shire.cs.psu.edu	*!psuvax1!shire!flee