Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!adm!xadmx!rbj@nav.icst.nbs.gov From: rbj@nav.icst.nbs.gov (Root Boy Jim) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Implications of recent virus (Trojan Horse) attack Message-ID: <17519@adm.BRL.MIL> Date: 14 Nov 88 20:54:08 GMT Sender: news@adm.BRL.MIL Lines: 20 Doug, Sometime awhile back (this spring, summer?), I remember someone's comment regarding which sources contained the routine `gets', the routine used to subvert fingerd. I recall you thanking the poster and stating your intention to eradicate it from your System V emulation code. I applaud you for your foresight, sharing your distaste for this beast. You may very well have saved yourself from one prong of the fork. I can imagine you crusading against gets() in both the C and POSIX standards and I hope you have had success in that area. I would go so far as to suggest that everyone remove this routine from libc.a and place it in a separate library available only upon special request for binary applications only, after filling out numerous forms. I can see it now, a paper entitled `Local Variables Considered Harmful'. (Root Boy) Jim Cottrell (301) 975-5688 or Careful with that VAX Eugene!