Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!samsung!umich!sharkey!msuinfo!netnews.upenn.edu!vax1.cc.lehigh.edu!cert.sei.cmu.edu!krvw From: CHESS@YKTVMV.BITNET (David.M.Chess) Newsgroups: comp.virus Subject: Re: Death of a Virus Message-ID: <0003.9004111326.AA11326@ubu.cert.sei.cmu.edu> Date: 10 Apr 90 05:00:00 GMT Sender: Virus Discussion List Lines: 20 Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu kelly@uts.amdahl.com (Kelly Goen) writes, apparently in response to a posting of mine: > Yes dave but under environments which use say the VM8086 model on > the 386 (such as VPIX) file writability and/or hardware acces is > TOTALLY under the control of unix... weak unix security weak dos > security good unix security = good dos security in this case.... My point was that putting file access under the control of the operating system *doesn't help*, at least not as much as people generally assume. Viruses spread by writing to files that they are *allowed* to write to; they don't depend on a lack of security. If most programs have write access to only a few other programs, viruses may not be able to spread as fast; but lowering the exponent on an exponential spread helps surprisingly little. Now of course this may be what you were saying; I'm not entirely sure I understand the posting... DC