UNIX-WIZARDS Digest V3#078

[Rex Black]

> 	Would you wizards out there please send me (Chairman of local ACM)
> some detailed possible attacks on holes in UNIX OS's? I will pass the info
> on to our attack team, and to no one else (as I am also manager of an academic
> facility machine, I have a vested interest in maintaining such info secure).

I feel that Gould was *extremely* ill-advised to post such a challenge,
much less allow someone to take them up on it.  This so-called contest
really boils down into nothing more than an extremely advanced seminar
in how to destroy a Unix system.  By the time this ACM "attack team"
is finished with their "project", every one of these people is going
to be a veritable black-belt in system destruction.  It speaks pretty
poorly of Gould that they feel no compunction about encouraging people
to obtain this type of knowledge.  

Suppose that a nuclear energy facility had developed what they considered
an "unbreakable" security system for a plutonium reprocessing plant.
Would it then behoove the company to seek out a collection of Palestinian 
terrorists and dare them to steal 150 kilos of weapons-grade Pu?  I dare 
say that any company doing this would soon find that its management was 
cooling their heels in a max. sec. prison.  With Unix branching out into more
and more critical operations (banking, hospitals, national security, etc.),
what possible right does Gould have to assemble a team of "super-hackers",
no matter how reliable these people are?

I hope that Dr. Tullis is very careful in the screening of who gets into
his attack team...I personally would refuse because I *know* the temptation
would be too much for me; I wonder if every person to whom such power
would be an immense temptation would have the same scruples.  (Just how
often would *you* drive 55 if you had a Ferrari?)

Rex Black
	
black at ee.ucla.edu                                          ARPA        
...!{ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf,trwspp}!ucla-cs!uclaee!black     UUCP

Disclaimer:  The following are my own opinions and may or may not reflect
the official view of the University of California or any of its employees.