security bugs

[Mark Crispin]

     In the TOPS-20 wizards mailing list, we regularly discussed security
bugs and their fixes.  Does this mean that those of us entering the Brave
New World of Unix must settle with "security through obscurity", where a
privileged class of the knowledgable is allowed to run roughshod over those
systems whose in-house wizards have not yet memorized every character of C
code in every utility?

     One criticism often made about Unix from the outside has been that
Unix lacks software maturity.  Hiding these sorts of problems isn't going
to make Unix more mature, but being able to run in an environment with
hostile users will.

     I don't want this to degenerate into another "my operating system is
better than yours" flame.  I want to see Unix become more than just a
programmers' playground.
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