Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!ucla-cs!zen!ucbvax!hplabs!hp-pcd!uoregon!markv
From: markv@uoregon.UUCP (Mark VandeWettering)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: The REAL virus problem
Message-ID: <1401@uoregon.UUCP>
Date: 5 Jan 88 20:26:15 GMT
References: <7967@g.ms.uky.edu> <265@coplex.UUCP> <7977@g.ms.uky.edu>
Reply-To: markv@drizzle.UUCP (Mark VandeWettering)
Organization: University of Oregon, Computer Science, Eugene OR
Lines: 37

In article <7977@g.ms.uky.edu> sean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) writes:
>>>The designers at Commodore Amiga should have never made it possible to
>>>install a virus in such a way.  One *cannot* rely on ignorance as
>>>protection against programmers with bad intentions.

>The complaint was that they made it possible for a program to grab
>control of the machine after warm boot and before workbench (reread my
>article carefully, I *hate* being misinterpreted).  I assume the point
>of this was to allow a hook for some kind of debugger.  Now quite
>frankly, I like the idea.  But, as I pointed out earlier, it is a
>horrible security bug.  Commodore knew this, and elected to keep the
>information secret as a means of protection.  My other point was that
>one cannot rely on secrecy as protection against malicious
>programmers.

The entire concept of security in a personal computer is kind of silly.
I have protection on computers at work, and accept it because I like to
be protected against other people making havoc out of the computer.
When I come home, I want a computer that I can modify/hack/destroy willy
nilly.  The ability to install a debugger/virus/whatever is a NEAT
idea, not (necessarily) a harmful one.

>This was a mistake, but one that can be cleared up.  Commodore could
>release a "more secure" kickstart that would not pass control to the
>hook address.  If one really wanted a hook available, perhaps holding
>down a mouse key during reboot would enable the hook.

Not a bad solution, I would accept something like that.

As for commodore's use of "secrecy" to prevent virus's from being
created, if true, I think they found out that

	a.  People are quite clever
	b.  They probably should have told everyone about it so they
	    could be prepared.

markv