GNU, security, and RMS

[James D. Allen]

In article <2322 at thor.acc.stolaf.edu> mike at stolaf.edu (Mike Haertel) writes:
> 
> (1) Anyone who thinks a UNIX-compatible system can be `secure' has
>     some serious delusions.  Timing windows and covert channels abound.

	Help stamp out covert channels!  I don't care what text-editor
	my computer runs as long as KGB agents can't use it to send
	messages to Moscow Central.

In article <29457 at ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>, haynes at ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU (Jim Haynes) writes:
> In article <2322 at thor.acc.stolaf.edu> mike at stolaf.edu writes:
> >
> >(2) There should not be security among the users of a computer system.
> >    The principal use I have seen security put to has been the self-
> >    aggrandizement of system administrators at the expense of the
> >    user community.  (I agree that in some situations it is reasonable
> >    to have security to keep out outsiders, though.)

	Bravo!  I'll do an occasional
		% chmod 600 Personal_little_black_book
	to discourage casual snooping, but I always make /dev/mem and
	/dev/disk `rw-r--r--'.  If a user wants to write his own improved
	`df' or `ps', more power to him.
> 
> Well, you have a right to your opinion; but a corollary of this belief
> is that all the users of a computer system have to be mutually friendly
> and responsible and trust one another.  Which sounds like the mythical
> home town where people don't need to lock the doors when they leave home.

	Rare perhaps in 1990 U.S.A., but "mythical"?  Boy.  I guess one way to
	cope with cynicism is to believe things are this bad everywhe{n,re}.
> 
> I claim the right to remain highly skeptical when the user community is
> a collection of college students of widely varying backgrounds, political
> beliefs, sexual orientations, maturities, academic abilities, etc.

	Oh, I was wondering how different organizations used the group_id.
	Let me guess:
		% cat /etc/group
		fhetero:*:1:
		mhetero:*:2:
		fhomo:*:-2:
		mhomo:*:-3:
		boviphile:*:-4:
	I suppose Berkeley invented setgroups() to accommodate bisexuals.

+ In article <3, I think> jfh at rpp386.cactus.org (John F. Haugh II) writes:
+ + I think [a previous poster] meant getting rid of UID == 0 being a
+ + privileged user.  Again, this an Orange Book requirement.

	Orange Book?  Oh, you mean the people that brought us the B-1 Bomber
	and the Iranian secret police.  Right on!  Let Noriega export billions
	of $ of cocaine to North America, just don't tell him the root
	password.
	
> -- 
> Mike Haertel <mike at stolaf.edu>
> ``There's nothing remarkable about it.  All one has to do is hit the right
>   keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.'' -- J. S. Bach

	So JS Bach was a Unix hacker!  It wasn't mentioned in his biography.