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Date:      Mon, 3 Feb 1997 12:54:53 -0800 (PST)
From:      Stranger Bone <ben@narcissus.ml.org>
To:        Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@critter.dk.tfs.com>
Cc:        freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Critical Security Problem in 4.4BSD crt0 
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.3.91.970203124937.6759E-100000@narcissus.ml.org>
In-Reply-To: <1097.854980430@critter.dk.tfs.com>

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On Mon, 3 Feb 1997, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:

<snip>

> >Where do we disagree on this?
> 
> In that many systems cannot "just upgrade" any and all times.  I may
> have more experience in the operational aspects of computers than
> you have.
> 
> What we need is manpower who are interested and dedicated in their
> effort to >help< the users, rather than rip the carpet out under
> them.

This sysadmin agrees.  I'd far prefer that security exploits be kept under
people's hats as much as possible until a patch can be released;  and I'd
far rather wait a week or two for a patch than get an immediate patch and
then randomly start seeing programs die on signal six or whatever. 

While I agree with Mr. Ptacek's ideals, I've noticed that his grand plan 
for immediate bug-fixes doesn't include a source of manpower.  Talk, Mr. 
Ptacek, is cheap, as they say.

All in all I am inclined to trust core on this sort of thing (even when
they disagree with each other?  hmm).  They've been doing this for a
*long* time, most of them, and they have a pretty good idea of what's
practical and what's not. 
 
> --
> Poul-Henning Kamp           | phk@FreeBSD.ORG       FreeBSD Core-team.
> http://www.freebsd.org/~phk | phk@login.dknet.dk    Private mailbox.
> whois: [PHK]                | phk@tfs.com           TRW Financial Systems, Inc.
> Power and ignorance is a disgusting cocktail.
> 



 Ben

The views expressed above are not those of the Worker's Compensation 
Board of Queensland, Australia.






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