Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!ira.uka.de!smurf!urlichs From: urlichs@smurf.sub.org (Matthias Urlichs) Newsgroups: news.software.b Subject: Re: Cnews and the cancel control command Message-ID: Date: 6 Feb 91 18:44:58 GMT References: <1991Feb4.002104.12830@wolves.uucp> <1991Feb4.185130.6956@zoo.toronto.edu> Organization: University of Karlsruhe, FRG Lines: 22 In news.software.b, article <1991Feb4.185130.6956@zoo.toronto.edu>, henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: < In article <1991Feb4.002104.12830@wolves.uucp> ggw%wolves@cs.duke.edu (Gregory G. Woodbury) writes: < >Has anyone else felt the desire to have the cancel command be a bit more < >controlled in Cnews? ... < < The desire, yes... but the flesh is weak. :-) The problem is that forging < news articles (including control messages) is trivial, and there is no < simple check that cannot be bypassed easily by the determined canceller. And on the other hand, almost every check will fail for some cases. Messages travel different paths; people post from different machines; News software inserts "Sender:" headers (and others get mangled sometimes); et al. Maybe it would be a better idea to "chmod 000" the cancelled article. That way, it can at least be restored easily if the Cancel was forged. How about an "uncancel" control message to restore such an article, while we're at it? -- Matthias Urlichs -- urlichs@smurf.sub.org -- urlichs@smurf.ira.uka.de /(o\ Humboldtstrasse 7 - 7500 Karlsruhe 1 - FRG -- +49+721+621127(0700-2330) \o)/