Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!brl-tgr!internet!Mark Crispin From: Mark Crispin Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Subject: security bugs Message-ID: <5746@brl-tgr.ARPA> Date: Tue, 13-Nov-84 12:45:41 EST Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.5746 Posted: Tue Nov 13 12:45:41 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 15-Nov-84 01:58:34 EST Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA Organization: Ballistic Research Lab Lines: 17 In the TOPS-20 wizards mailing list, we regularly discussed security bugs and their fixes. Does this mean that those of us entering the Brave New World of Unix must settle with "security through obscurity", where a privileged class of the knowledgable is allowed to run roughshod over those systems whose in-house wizards have not yet memorized every character of C code in every utility? One criticism often made about Unix from the outside has been that Unix lacks software maturity. Hiding these sorts of problems isn't going to make Unix more mature, but being able to run in an environment with hostile users will. I don't want this to degenerate into another "my operating system is better than yours" flame. I want to see Unix become more than just a programmers' playground. -------