[39437] in Cypherpunks
Re: NYT on Netscape Crack
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (sameer)
Tue Sep 19 10:09:42 1995
From: sameer <sameer@c2.org>
To: aba@atlas.ex.ac.uk
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 1995 06:59:02 -0700 (PDT)
Cc: eay@mincom.oz.au, cypherpunks@com.toad
In-Reply-To: <28592.9509191106@exe.dcs.exeter.ac.uk> from "aba@atlas.ex.ac.uk" at Sep 19, 95 12:06:28 pm
>
> Sure that's hard to notice, but what you describe was an accident, ie
> the code wasn't working as you thought it was.
>
Also, the fact that the source isn't available meant that it
took quite some work to reveal the hole. In Eric's case, with
available source, his mistake was found and corrected.
>
> The moral in netscapes story is that closed systems are bad news.
> These things ideally need open review. And of course designing things
> with the expectation that they are secure with the *given* that the
> full algorithm is known.
Yes.
>
> Real shame because the rest of the software is very innovative
> compared to other browsers, and apparently good quality. Also may be
> a set back for net commerce, which is bad news.
>
Well if we hammer at 'em enough maybe they'll get their
security fixed. I still use netscape. I'm not going to stop using
netscape. (I'm not going to use netscape for anything sensitive
though, that's for sure.)
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