From owner-freebsd-chat Wed May 10 12:24:16 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from fw.wintelcom.net (ns1.wintelcom.net [209.1.153.20]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3D4C437B9F2 for ; Wed, 10 May 2000 12:24:13 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from bright@fw.wintelcom.net) Received: (from bright@localhost) by fw.wintelcom.net (8.10.0/8.10.0) id e4AJsXm03876; Wed, 10 May 2000 12:54:33 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 10 May 2000 12:54:33 -0700 From: Alfred Perlstein To: Rahul Siddharthan Cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: How Microsoft ensures virus-free software Message-ID: <20000510125432.I28180@fw.wintelcom.net> References: <20000511002705.A1165@physics.iisc.ernet.in> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 1.0.1i In-Reply-To: <20000511002705.A1165@physics.iisc.ernet.in>; from rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in on Thu, May 11, 2000 at 12:27:06AM +0530 Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org * Rahul Siddharthan [000510 12:32] wrote: > Saw this link in an article on the ILOVEYOU virus. > This is from Microsoft's own webpage on how they ensure > virus-free software on their shipping CD's. > > http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q80/5/20.ASP > > -snip- > Release Insertion Into Manufacturing Network > > The master is read into a UNIX-based disk duplication system. The > system creates an exact disk image of the master, duplicating the > format and data. A duplicated masters is created from the original > read in image. This silver master is used by the Product Group in > their review, before they sign-off. The silver master is not to be > used in the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) process. The golden master, > delivered by the product group to the release group, is the original > image, and is released to manufacturing when the final approvals are > received from the product groups. > > -snip- > > Duplication Process > > Disks are duplicated on a variety of industrial strength, quality > focused systems. Most of these systems are UNIX-based. The UNIX-based > duplication systems used in manufacturing are impervious to > MS-DOS-based, Windows- based, and Macintosh-based viruses. > The few MS-DOS-based and Windows-based standalone duplication systems > do not allow MS-DOS-based operating systems to access the duplication > system. Virus protection systems used by these MS-DOS-based and > Windows-based duplication systems strictly govern the duplication > process, even when they are not running. > > There's also an article on CNN on how linux users were unaffected > by ILOVEYOU. > So why not just use Unix in the first place? I'm hyper-caffinated right now, but how the hell does this protect users if the developers' boxes are infected? Basically Joe Random MS coder builds the final release EXE/DLLs on his infected computer and how exactly does this intracate, but completely useless handoff proceedure purge that virus? *boggles* -- -Alfred Perlstein - [bright@wintelcom.net|alfred@freebsd.org] "I have the heart of a child; I keep it in a jar on my desk." To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message