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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!rcj
From: rcj@burl.UUCP (Curtis Jackson)
Newsgroups: net.rumor
Subject: Re: Computer Horror Stories
Message-ID: <1036@burl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 17-Feb-86 19:40:18 EST
Article-I.D.: burl.1036
Posted: Mon Feb 17 19:40:18 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 18-Feb-86 04:09:55 EST
References: <14700001@hplabsb.UUCP> <476@mmm.UUCP> <672@amiga.amiga.UUCP> <404@ccivax.UUCP> <389@watdragon.UUCP>
Reply-To: rcj@burl.UUCP (Curtis Jackson)
Organization: AT&T Technologies, Burlington NC
Lines: 19
Summary: 

There is a great way to bring any Unix system (that I know of, anyway) to
its knees for quite some time (last time I did it it was almost 10 minutes)
with a simple 4-5 line C program.  This works regardless of system load;
the machine goes completely catatonic (except for separate processors
that don't need the main machine for a while, like tty driver boards).

If you kick off a shell that infinitely forks these babies, the only way
to kill the system in less than about 3 days is to drop it on the floor.
The bad thing is that anyone can do it, no special privleges are
necessary.  I won't post the source for obvious reasons, but it is a
wonderous way to get everyone competing for your resources to leave...
I have never done it in a working environment, but Man have I been tempted!!

Sorry that this isn't a rumor (but only I know for sure, right?),
-- 

The MAD Programmer -- 919-228-3313 (Cornet 291)
alias: Curtis Jackson	...![ ihnp4 ulysses cbosgd mgnetp ]!burl!rcj
			...![ ihnp4 cbosgd akgua masscomp ]!clyde!rcj