Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!ll-xn!mit-eddie!bbn!bbn.com!rsalz
From: rsalz@bbn.com (Rich Salz)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: More BITNET stupidity
Message-ID: <456@fig.bbn.com>
Date: 28 Feb 88 18:52:26 GMT
References: <7136@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu< <1619@tulum.UUCP> <1615@uoregon.UUCP>
Reply-To: rsalz@bbn.com (Rich Salz)
Organization: BBN Laboratories, Cambridge MA
Lines: 32

In comp.mail.misc (<1615@uoregon.UUCP>), dboyes@drizzle.UUCP (David Boyes) writes:
>I sent the following letter to Karl a few days ago. These messages are
>legitimate and are caused by the software DOING THE RIGHT THING.
No they're not.  See below.

>*flame on*
>To those of you who think our software is brain-damaged, AT LEAST IT
>TRIES TO BE IMPOSTER-PROOF. RN certainly isn't.
>*flame off*
Usenet is not electronic mail.  RN does not try to be imposter-proof because
the the underlying transport mechanism (UUCP or NNTP) are known to be
insecure.  We live with that.  What does that have to do with mail, and
why would a Usenet poster give a rat's ass?

David explained the UOREGON failure messages tons of folks recently got came
about because some local person moved queued mail files.  The system later
delivered the mail messages, but noticed they user-id's weren't kosher, so
it sent mail to everyone saying "hey, I sent a mail message out under
your name, but it might have been forged."  Note the words "a mail message";
a prolific mail writer doesn't stand a snowball's chance of figuring out
*which* mail message.

**If the BITNET mailer thought the message was spoofed it should have sat
**on it and told the postmaster!  It should not have sent it!

As I've said before, I get lots of messages from BITNET sites almost every
time I put out something in comp.sources.unix.  I'm tired of it, and I will
continue to complain and gripe in public forums to drum up sympathy and
support to get it stopped.
	/r$
-- 
For comp.sources.unix stuff, mail to rsalz@uunet.uu.net.