Trojan horse possible with news readers

[Badri Lokanathan]

In article <1261 at vsi1.UUCP>, lmb at vsi1.UUCP (Larry Blair) writes:
> I don't believe that those braindamaged versions of vi will execute:
> 
> > ex:!sh -c 'echo any command'>/tmp/NEWSBUG:

Yes it will (at least the version of ex documented in the Mt. Xinu
user docs,) since the caveats are 
	(0) modeline must be set
	(1) The line should appear in the first or last 5 lines
	(2) The string ex: or vi: preceeded by a tab or a space may be
	    anywhere in the line and anything after the : is
	    interpreted as editor commands.

The only safeguard is to disable modeline.
-- 
"We will fight for the right to be free {) badri at ee.rochester.edu
 We will build our own society         //\\ {ames,cmcl2,columbia,cornell,
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