🚀 go-pugleaf

cryptic <zi...@gulf.net> writes:

[Gaping security holes in MSIE, and their potential "backdoor" character]

>It is obvious that these were not supposed to be found....but this is
>what many hackers do. They hack...and find things that are not meant
>to be found. What you don't know can hurt you.

Look, you may assume that everyone at MS is a blithering idiot, but it's
a pretty safe bet that that isn't so.

If they _wanted_ to create a backdoor which only they could use, then it
would be of the kind "if a .LNK file with the name HMT56DS34.LNK gets selected,
and the 32 bit CRC on that file is 24753, and it has the word 'qwertyuio'
in a comment somewhere, _then_ give full priviliges to it without asking".
And you wouldn't find such a thing by accident. It would be like searching
for those service numbers on the phone network, which you know are there,
but which you just won't find (or at least won't find the pass-digits to)
in your lifetime, unless you get inside information.

The current bunch of security holes are just that --- security holes, 
where someone wasn't careful enough, didn't think things through, and
suddenly some user comes up with a way of making it do things it was
never supposed to do. Kind of like some guy finding a 2600Hz whistle in
a Captain Crunch cereal box, and suddenly being able to phone all through
the world without paying....

>Also, how about the Mac code found in windows a little while back
>which brought a lawsuit against Mircsoft which was settled out of
>court? 

In fact, the details about that incident were that MS asked a third
party company to develop some video routines for them, and that
third party company was also involved in Quicktime development. They
then "borrowed" some code from one product for the other; The lawsuit
concerning copyright infringement was against the third party company;
The suit against MS was simply to stop the encumbered product being
distributed.

Now, the Stacker suit, _that_ was a different Story....

Bernie "I can't believe I defend MS" Meyer

-- 
============================================================================
"It's a magical world, Hobbes ol' buddy...
    	                                   ...let's go exploring"
Calvin's final words, on December 31st, 1995