[41674] in Cypherpunks
Re: Netscape whining virus
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (s1018954@aix2.uottawa.ca)
Wed Oct 18 07:27:57 1995
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 07:26:10 -0400 (EDT)
From: s1018954@aix2.uottawa.ca
Reply-To: s1018954@aix2.uottawa.ca
To: Mats Bergstrom <asgaard@sos.sll.se>
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: <Pine.HPP.3.91.951018103637.23762A-100000@cor.sos.sll.se>
On Wed, 18 Oct 1995, Mats Bergstrom wrote:
> You don't seem to understand the issue here. Netscape with JAVA is
> supposed to become more or less the 'only' program you will run,
> a kind of superimposed operative system, or your main shell for
> running 'everything' from. Much of 'everything' will be downloaded
> at the time of execution. (Microsoft is supposed to be reduced to
> one of several 'kernel-suppliers' only.) And 'infected PCs' really
> *are* a very big deal in corporate and institutional surroundings.
I understand this exactly, I face my university's restricting account
security measures and virus paranoia every time I log in.
And I'm all for component ware becoming a reality. It's just that
some of last week's java screaming seemed a bit shrill. What doesn't seem
a "big deal" to me is that the security problems of the past also apply
to Java. It's not that it's irrelevant, it's that it's obvious. The
internet worm, as far as I know, was written in C (and some vax asm?).
I'm just saying, "yeah, so what else is new?", "secure" software has holes.
I'm happy someone's trying to give some thought to language security
during the design phase (no matter how ineffective, Perry).
