Xref: utzoo news.admin:3988 news.sysadmin:1430 Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cwjcc!hal!nic.MR.NET!tank!uxc!deimos!ksuvax1!ncrwic!ncrlnk!uunet!mcrware!jejones From: jejones@mcrware.UUCP (James Jones) Newsgroups: news.admin,news.sysadmin Subject: Re: Good Worms can be your friend... !?! (RE: worm & virus) Summary: would *you* trust a Wormy Appleseed? Message-ID: <839@mcrware.UUCP> Date: 13 Nov 88 13:18:12 GMT References: <3372@utastro.UUCP> Organization: Microware Systems Corp., Des Moines, Ia. Lines: 14 In article <3372@utastro.UUCP>, werner@utastro.UUCP (Werner Uhrig) writes: > What if, by definition, all UNIX-boxes on a network are insecure > (lots of people say that) and what if all systems came with a > feature heavily protected by encryption which would allow a vendor > to send out patches, which, when they arrive on your system, would > announce themselves and tell you what security holes you have left > open and offer to close them for you? Then all the crackers would know just what to attack. I don't think anyone would trust such a mechanism, unless it were one that was under their control, i.e. the sysadmin would call the vendor's machine periodically to run something to probe their system for leaks. Even then, I would worry. James Jones