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Date:      Thu, 6 Jul 1995 03:00:18 +0930 (CST)
From:      Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au>
To:        karl@bagpuss.demon.co.uk (Karl Strickland)
Cc:        msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, lix@cs.pdx.edu, current@freebsd.org, questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: your mail
Message-ID:  <199507051730.DAA17916@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au>
In-Reply-To: <199507050901.KAA08086@bagpuss.demon.co.uk> from "Karl Strickland" at Jul 5, 95 10:01:59 am

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Karl Strickland stands accused of saying:
> 
> > Don't listen to anyone who says that you should use xhost; it's out of
> > date and a security risk.

My apologies for not being clearer; I was on a slow link, and typing the
extra was too much like hard work 8)

My intention was to ward off the inevitable "use xhost +" advice, which 
is a great way to make yourself vulnerable.

> Just to clarify - are you saying that xhost based security does not perform
> the function it is supposed to (ie only allow clients from certain hosts
> to connect to the server)?  Or are you saying that the above does not provide
> adequate security when there is more than one user on a given machine?

As far as I am aware, xhost performs its intended function, however it's
intended function leaves certain windows of vulnerability, as you point
out above.  As such, I don't recommend it, particularly when Xauthority 
is so easily implemented.

> Karl

-- 
]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer        msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au    [[
]] Genesis Software                     genesis@atrad.adelaide.edu.au   [[
]] High-speed data acquisition and                                      [[
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]] My car has "demand start" - Terry Lambert                            [[



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