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Date:      Thu, 13 Feb 1997 07:49:33 +0900 (JST)
From:      Michael Hancock <michaelh@cet.co.jp>
To:        Alexander Snarskii <snar@lucky.net>
Cc:        dk+@ua.net, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: Increasing overall security....
Message-ID:  <Pine.SV4.3.95.970213074440.12287B-100000@parkplace.cet.co.jp>
In-Reply-To: <199702122023.WAA21544@burka.carrier.kiev.ua>

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On Wed, 12 Feb 1997, Alexander Snarskii wrote:

> > To play devil's advocate...
> > 
> > 1) It requires assembler which is harder to understand.  Less people are
> > qualified to review it.  Relying on something harder to understand for
> > security is questionable. 
> 
> Yes, it is. But there are about 51 functions in standard libc, realized
> on assembler, so, i think there are someone, who wrote it, and knew
> assembler well to review .... 

The intention of those functions is not security.
  
> > 
> > 2) We don't know if it operates correctly.  Sendmail 8.8.5 has around 106
> > strcpy's in it and we don't know what the patch's effect will be in a
> > production environment. 
> 
> Mike, do you think that i published this patches without correct
> check of working ? These patches are applied on my main computers
> about week or so, and i have no problems with... 
> ( Well, sendmail 8.8.5 - no problems, too... )

I'm sure you checked it.  You have to understand that skepticism is a
natural thing. 

Regards,


Mike Hancock




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