tim@ISM780B.UUCP (11/11/85)
> How can one be sure that there isn't some > magic code that allows one to listen in on ones neighbor - as is > well known, early releases of UNIX had just such a boobytrap carefully > hidden in the root password checking. References please? I know about the stuff that was done to login.c and the C compiler, but this was supposedly never actually stuck in a released system. Is this what you are refering to?
die@hydra.UUCP (Dave Emery) (11/19/85)
In answer to the question of what I was refering to by
"early versions of UNIX" - I did indeed mean that well known
"C" compiler and login crock. I have heard a probably appocryphal
account of how Bell labs released an early copy of some version
of UNIX that contained the trapdoor to a government agency sensitive
to security issues and had to quickly scramble to fix the problem.
I have no specific knowlage that any publicly released version
of UNIX had the trapdoor still in place - it might be interesting for
anyone who has access to really old versions from ancient prehistory
to check. Software development organizations often leaked copies of
development versions of software to favored customers in that era
("try this - it's much better than the release"), so some internal
Bell labs versions may have gotten out with the trapdoor even if
no formal ever product did.
David I. Emery Charles River Data Systems 617-626-1102
983 Concord St., Framingham, MA 01701.
uucp: decvax!frog!die