From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!ihnp4!ihps3!houxz!hocda!spanky!ka
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Title: Re: protecting kmem because someone felt obnoxious.
Article-I.D.: spanky.139
Posted: Tue Dec 28 17:29:12 1982
Received: Wed Dec 29 05:15:41 1982
References: sri-unix.4940

Michael Bloom's suggestion that getpass should set raw mode to prevent
users from pulling passwords out of the input queue won't work; it just
means that whoever wants to read the password has to pull it out of the
address space of the program invoking getpass.  That is more difficult,
but as Michael points out, many people who try to break security do so
for the challenge.  In many environments the best approach to security
is to trust your users and limit your efforts to keeping unauthorized
users out, but sometimes that is not possible.

As delivered, System V (and, I believe, System III) have /dev/mem pro-
tected.
					Kenneth Almquist