[comp.protocols.tcp-ip] UNIX bashing

peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) (11/10/88)

In article <11226@cgl.ucsf.EDU>, seibel@cgl.ucsf.edu (George Seibel) writes:
> In article <76424@sun.uucp> dre%ember@Sun.COM (David Emberson) writes:
> >[Matt Bishop (now at Dartmouth)] wrote a paper detailing at least a half
> >dozen holes in the Unix system...

UNIX in general or things like sendmail that are specific to BSD?

> "Congratulations!  You just
> bought a fine copy of Unix.  Don't keep any files you care about on it."
[ because we're not going to fix any security holes ]

You see, this is the sort of response we're going to get from this sort
of confusion. UNIX is not just BSD. The latest release of System V has
many security improvements... some of which were apparently made at the
urging of Robert Morris himself.

Another consideration.

Most of the individuals who buy computers run MS-DOS, a file manager and
program loader that doesn't begin to try to keep viruses out. It can't,
for obvious reasons. For all its faults, UNIX is a lot more secure than
the alternatives available to the general public.

The typical virus in an unprotected DOS or OS is at most a few K of
code... many only a few hundred bytes. This worm required a leader that
was nearly a hundred lines of 'C' code by itself.

Let's keep a sense of proportion.
-- 
Peter da Silva  `-_-'  Ferranti International Controls Corporation
"Have you hugged  U  your wolf today?"     uunet.uu.net!ficc!peter
Disclaimer: My typos are my own damn business.   peter@ficc.uu.net

libes@cme-durer.ARPA (Don Libes) (11/13/88)

In article <11226@cgl.ucsf.EDU>, seibel@cgl.ucsf.edu (George Seibel) writes:
> "Congratulations!  You just
> bought a fine copy of Unix.  Don't keep any files you care about on it."

I already see messages like that.  Whenever I run gnuemacs, I get:

  GNU Emacs comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; type C-h C-w for full details.

Sounds similar if not as overt.  In any case, I'm not the least
surprised when gnuemacs trashes my files/buffers.  (Same for UNIX.)

Don Libes          libes@cme.nbs.gov      ...!uunet!cme-durer!libes

beattie@visenix.UUCP (Brian Beattie) (11/14/88)

In article <720@muffin.cme-durer.ARPA> libes@cme.nbs.gov (Don Libes) writes:
/                                              I'm not the least
/surprised when gnuemacs trashes my files/buffers.  (Same for UNIX.)
/
/Don Libes          libes@cme.nbs.gov      ...!uunet!cme-durer!libes

I'm not the least surprised when the hammer smashes my thumb.

Think about it.
-- 
    _ANYONE_     | Brian Beattie          (703)471-7552
can sell software| 11525 Hickory Cluster, Reston, VA. 22090 
that has already | beattie@visenix.UU.NET
been written     | ...uunet!visenix!beattie