Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 14:37:38 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> To: peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva) Cc: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: cvsup - the next generation multi purpose netw. distrib. system (even for news ?!) Message-ID: <199609242137.OAA04725@phaeton.artisoft.com> In-Reply-To: <199609241031.FAA18112@bonkers.taronga.com> from "Peter da Silva" at Sep 24, 96 05:31:50 am
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> But every news transport link is point to point, and a LOT of places > use things other than NNTP server mode. I use UUCP and NNTP reader > mode, for example, and most ISPs would rather feed their corporate > clients with something the *clients* can control so they don't have > to spend support hours patching newsfeeds files. Usenet currently has a larger problem. It is under general attack; specifically, almost the entire usenet is being hit with cancel messages coming in through the open port that uunet keeps open to make the lives of everyone miserable (can't be any other good reason). The attack began at the start of this week. The attcker is most probably one of: 1) Someone who wants the attack hole closed, but is too lazy or stupid to do it themselves 2) Someone who wabts to cause an end-to-end authentication mechanism to be installed so they can pursue people using the law as a club 3) A spammer who wants the cancel interface disabled on most sites so you will have to see his spam, which would otherwise be killed by cancelmoose or a related mechanism. I suspect it's most probably a category 3 person, and could potentially be a category 2 person. I find category 1 unlikely. So what could be implemented to thwart each of these categories? Server cancel authentication. You would implement it by having a server verify it's users however it wants, and allow cancel message to only come from servers where the messages originated, and only then if they authenticate as that server using a PGP signature (which is known from the original posting as an X header item). Then you also allow "trusted" cancellers, like cancelmoose (to screw over a category 3 attacker). In any case, it's irrelevent to talk about changing the transport on something that is currently close to ruin. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.
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