Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!iuvax!bsu-cs!cfchiesa
From: cfchiesa@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (Christopher Chiesa)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec
Subject: Re: "UNWELCOME.TXT" - a better WELCOME message (and dynamic!)
Message-ID: <7773@bsu-cs.bsu.edu>
Date: 16 Jun 89 12:16:26 GMT
References: <452@marque.mu.edu> <2270@faline.bellcore.com> <224@shodha.dec.com>
Distribution: usa
Organization: CS Dept, Ball St U, Muncie, IN, USA
Lines: 23

In article <224@shodha.dec.com>, devine@shodha.dec.com (Bob Devine) writes:
> In article <452@marque.mu.edu> kcb@marque.UUCP (Kent Brodie) writes:
> > one of the largest security "holes", as it were, is the fact that the
> > default "welcome" message on VAX/VMS systems is just that-- it WELCOMES
> > the user to the system.  In the case of an unauthorized access to your
> > precious system, the existance of this message can cause ALL SORTS of
> > legal headaches, depending on your state/local laws.
> 
>   NOTE: There has been no legal finding that having a welcome message
> constitutes an invitation to system cracking.  

Hmmm... That's odd...  one of the VERY FIRST messages a friend of mine ever
sent me when we first started getting involved with Usenet a year or two ago,
concerned "a Federal judge" having ruled that "the appearance of the word 
'WELCOME' in a system's login message" DID in fact compromise that site's legal
"leg to stand on" in cases of hacker violation etc.

Does someone have a *definitive*, documented-on-official-paper answer as to 
whether this is TRUE or just RUMOR?

-- 
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