Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!sunic!news.funet.fi!funic!fuug!demos!avg From: avg@hq.demos.su (Vadim G. Antonov) Newsgroups: comp.unix.internals Subject: Re: Finding Passwords Message-ID: <1990Oct10.174550.10223@hq.demos.su> Date: 10 Oct 90 17:45:50 GMT References: <8685@mirsa.inria.fr> <12438:Oct223:00:3290@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <651@puck.mrcu> <21948:Oct606:29:2890@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <52347@brunix.UUCP> <1990Oct7.155203.13283@hq.demos.su> <1849@necisa.ho.necisa.oz> Reply-To: avg@hq.demos.su (Vadim G. Antonov) Organization: DEMOS, Moscow, USSR Lines: 25 In article <1849@necisa.ho.necisa.oz> boyd@necisa.ho.necisa.oz (Boyd Roberts) writes: >In article <1990Oct7.155203.13283@hq.demos.su> avg@hq.demos.su (Vadim G. Antonov) writes: >> Seems to me an appropriate hack is about 20 lines in a kernel >> and getty. > >`Hack' is the right word. Sure, you could `hack' all sorts of mess into >the kernel/getty/login but it wouldn't be UNIX. The machine is supposed >to allow you to get things done. The kernel should not be cluttered with >junk to cope with paranoid end cases. The problem with these `hacks' is >that they're more easily implemented than fixing the `problem' the right way. > >Boyd Roberts boyd@necisa.ho.necisa.oz.au I do not understand why such a remedy was not included in vanilla Unix from the very beginning. May be we should fix it for good? Hey, Unix fathers! Anyway it's better than ugly vhangup stuff (at least this syscall can be throwed out). And (of course) if Boyd thinks that 20 lines is 'a hack' he can implement it with very haired security system containing some thousands lines of source code :-) "Keep It Simple, ..." Vadim Antonov DEMOS, Moscow, USSR (It is a joke!)