[risks] Risks Digest 21.85

From: RISKS List Owner (riskoat_private)
Date: Mon Jan 07 2002 - 13:27:13 PST

  • Next message: RISKS List Owner: "[risks] Risks Digest 21.86"

    RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest  Monday 7 January 2002  Volume 21 : Issue 85
    
       FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS (comp.risks)
       ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy, Peter G. Neumann, moderator
    
    ***** See last item for further information, disclaimers, caveats, etc. *****
    This issue is archived at <URL:http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/21.85.html>
    and by anonymous ftp at ftp.sri.com, cd risks .
    
      Contents:
    Yokoh Satellite loses control (Paul Saffo)
    More medical risks (Clay Jackson)
    Bogus dates for McAfee virus alerts (William Colburn)
    Re: Harvard admissions e-mail bounced by AOL's spam filters 
      (Simon Waters, Danny Burstein, Gordon Zaft)
    Re: "Buffer Overflow" security problems (Nicholas C. Weaver, Dan Franklin,
      Kent Borg, Jerrold Leichter, Henry Baker)
    Re: Software glitch grounds new Nikon camera (Dave Gillett)
    REVIEW: "Incident Response", Kenneth R. van Wyk/Richard Forna (Rob Slade)
    Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks)
    
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2002 07:08:39 -0800
    From: Paul Saffo <psaffoat_private>
    Subject: Yokoh Satellite loses control
    
    An unharmonic convergence of solar eclipse and satellite's "invisible
    orbit"...
    
    SKY & TELESCOPE'S NEWS BULLETIN - JANUARY 4, 2002
    For images and Web links for these items, visit <http://www.skypub.com>
    
    YOHKOH LOSES CONTROL
    
    On December 14, 2001, the Japanese solar observatory Yohkoh began spinning
    out of control. Since then, all scientific operations have stopped, and it
    remains unclear when the craft will be operational again.
    
    The problem began during last month's annular eclipse of the Sun.  Yohkoh
    uses a Sun-centering system to determine its position at any given
    time. During the eclipse, the craft lost contact with the Sun, put itself
    into a "safe mode," and slowly began to drift off track and rotate. Normally
    this wouldn't have been a problem -- during its decade in orbit, Yohkoh has
    seen its share of eclipses. However, this event occurred during a rare
    period of the craft's orbit (known as an invisible orbit) when the craft was
    out of communication with Earth.  Thus controllers on the ground couldn't
    detect (or compensate for) the craft's sudden roll.
    
    Problems only got worse from there. Because of its slow roll, Yohkoh's solar
    panels no longer received direct sunlight. By the time ground controllers at
    the Kagoshima Space Center regained contact with the observatory, its
    batteries were very low and the craft had lost attitude control.
    
    To fix the problem, scientists first established contact and turned off all
    the craft's science instruments in order to conserve power.  Currently the
    craft is rotating slowly, about one rotation per minute.  According to Loren
    Acton (Montana State University), head scientist of Yohkoh's solar X-ray
    telescope, in the spacecraft's current state, its solar panels only receive
    sunlight in spurts. "During flashes of illumination, electricity is
    produced," says Acton. Thus the first step toward recovery is for scientists
    to wait until the craft can charge up.
    
    It's currently unclear when, and even if, scientists will regain control of
    the craft. But astronomers are hopeful. "It will take clever work to stop
    the roll and re-acquire the Sun," says Acton.
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2002 19:13:40 -0800
    From: "Clay Jackson" <clayjat_private>
    Subject: More medical risks
    
    In RISKS-21.84,  "Laura S. Tinnel" <ltinnelat_private> wrote about
    risks of unattended, unlocked computers in patient and examination rooms.
    
    Reminds me of a time a few years back when I visited my local HMO (they have
    their own facilities), and discovered a username, password and IP address on
    a PERMANENT sticker the side of a system (the monitor, actually) being used
    for Patient Registration.  Needless to say, the first thing I did when I got
    home was 'ping' that address from my PC.  Of course, it responded.  When I
    tried 'telnet', it came back with 'Login:'.  I didn't have the heart to try
    the credentials I'd seen. The NEXT thing I did was drop an e-mail to a friend
    who worked in IS at the HMO.  I returned to the clinic two weeks later, and
    the sticker had been pasted over.  I don't know if they've yet secured their
    network (we've since switched providers).
    
    Clay Jackson <clayjat_private>
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 11:48:23 -0700
    From: "Schlake ( William Colburn )" <schlakeat_private>
    Subject: Bogus dates for McAfee virus alerts
    
    http://www.mcafeeb2b.com/avert/virus-alerts/default.asp
    
    When I go to McAfee virus alerts Web page I read the somewhat disconcerting
    line "This page current as of" (and it ends, without even a period).  What
    am I to assume about the currentness of the page?
    
    Turning on javascript gives me a slightly different answer that reads "This
    page current as of Monday, January 4th, 1971."  So now I know that as of
    early January 1971 there are NO virus alerts for any 1980's era DOS boxes
    and 1990's/2000's era Windows boxes.  That sure makes me feel a whole lot
    better.  Not only are there no virus alerts, but the machines those alerts
    would be for haven't even been invented yet!
    
    Oh wait, the clock on my machine is just wrong, and the Web page merely
    printed out the local concept of the day and year.
    
    How much can I trust the page now?  The concept of "current" is local to me,
    the reader, via javascript.  I don't need to go out onto the Internet to
    download a current copy of the page from the McAfee Web site to get an "up
    to date" version, I just have to reload my locally cached copy and presto it
    has todays date on it, and I will never again have to worry about viruses
    alerts because there won't be any.
    
    The risk here is that someone could look at this Web page and see an invalid
    date because either their machine has the wrong time or because the Web page
    was cached somewhere and not re-downloaded.  The result would be that
    someone might not find out about an important (high risk) virus that could
    potentially do a lot of damage.
    
    PS: I complained about this to McAfee using their online form about a
    month ago, and never heard anything back.
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2002 22:17:51 +0000
    From: Simon Waters <Simonat_private>
    Subject: Re: Harvard admissions e-mail bounced by AOL's spam filters (R-21.84)
    
      '"AOL officials could not explain" - why their servers identified these
      e-mail messages as spam.'
    
    Funny, because I can explain this, and have in previous submissions to
    comp.risks, as it happens to many mailing lists.
    
    AOL mail servers delete e-mails after accepting them if they think they are
    spam, without notifying the intended recipient or the sender. They do this
    when they receive bulk mailings, although the exact circumstances that
    trigger it remain known only to the AOL mail administrators.
    
    Anybody having set up a large e-mail lists knows this, you have to get bulk
    mailing servers white-listed by AOL. Presumably Harvard didn't do this.
    
    AOL doesn't publicise this information, but I've had the basics confirmed by
    a former employee of AOL.
    
    The only way to ensure you get the e-mail from lists you subscribe to is not
    to use AOL for your e-mail.
    
    Hopefully someone at Harvard will explain the business consequences of such
    idiotic behaviour to AOL, in the meantime just use an ISP who knows what
    they are doing, not for nothing did they get the nickname "America Offline".
    
      [Similar comments from Jenny Holmberg.  PGN]
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2002 18:31:22 -0500 (EST)
    From: danny burstein <dannybat_private>
    Subject: Re: Harvard admissions e-mail bounced by AOL's spam filters (R-21.84)
    
    First, the stories claimed that these e-mails "bounced" back to Harvard.
    However, in my own experience with AOL's spam filters, most of the time that
    mail is simply sent to /dev/null. So the sender generally does not even get
    any notice that their e-mail was undelivered. Since I haven't seen any
    actual direct quote from a Harvard spokesrep I doubt any sort of ack was
    sent back.
    
    Also note that a "bounce" message would take this whole saga out of the
    "risks" venue (or at least move it to the margin). Once the sender is
    advised of the problem different steps can be taken. And in this sort of
    situation, an e-mail bounce ten minutes after sending is far preferable to a
    USPS similar bounceback which would take days or weeks.
    
    The second point is that the stories, again, claim that Harvard was putting
    information about this up on their Web page. I've been checking every few
    hours since the reports first appeared. Nothing about this has appeared on
    their main page nor on any obvious links.
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Mon, 07 Jan 2002 13:13:36 -0700
    From: Gordon Zaft <zaftat_private>
    Subject: Re: Harvard admissions e-mail bounced by AOL's spam filters (R-21.84)
    
    Daniel Smith notes, "Let us hope that organizations do not begin use e-mail
    for communications more important than university admissions letters, in the
    name of "security" (and cost reduction)."
    
    Alas, it's too late for that.  My alma mater, The University of Arizona(tm)
    (really!) now requires all students to have and use an e-mail account for
    official correspondence.  While it's true that problems with
    university-hosted e-mail are not likely to cause a problem (or to be caught
    if they are), many students are likely to forward these accounts to other
    accounts where they might run into this problem.  It's disturbing.
    
    UA's e-mail policy is online at 
      http://www.registrar.arizona.edu/emailpolicy.htm .
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2002 13:15:52 -0800 (PST)
    From: "Nicholas C. Weaver" <nweaverat_private>
    Subject: Re: "Buffer Overflow" security problems (Baker, RISKS-21.84)
    
    I agree with Henry Baker's basic assessment that buffer overflows,
    especially in code which listens to the outside world (and therefore
    vulnerable to remote attacks) should be classed as legally negligent.
    However, it seems to be nigh-impossible to get programmers to write in more
    semantically solid languages.
    
    There is another solution: software fault isolation [1].  If the C/C++
    compilers included the sandboxing techniques as part of the compilation
    process, this would eliminate the most deleterious effects of stack and heap
    buffer overflows: the ability to run an attacker's arbitrary code, with a
    relatively minor hit in performance (under 10% in execution time).
    
    An interesting question, and one for the lawyers to settle, is why haven't
    these techniques been widely deployed?  The techniques were being
    commercialized by Colusa Software as part of their mobile code substrate [2]
    in the mid 1990s.  In March 1996, Colusa software was purchased by Microsoft
    and it seems effectively digested, thereby eliminating another potential
    mobile-code competitor, something Microsoft seemed to fear at the time.
    
    The interesting RISK, and one which is probably best left to the lawyers, is
    that as a result, for over half a decade, Microsoft has owned the patent
    rights and the developments required to eliminate two of their biggest
    security headaches: unchecked buffer overflows and Active-X's basic
    "compiled C/C++" nature, yet seems to have done nothing with them.
    
    What is the liability involved when a company owns the rights to a
    technology which could greatly increase safety, at an acceptable (sub 10%)
    performance penalty, but does nothing to use it in their own products?
    Especially when the result is serious, widespread security problems which
    could otherwise be prevented?
    
    [1] "Efficient Software-Based Fault Isolation", Robert Wahbe, Steven Lucco,
    Thomas E. Anderson, Susan L. Graham, in *ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems
    Review*, volume 27, number 5, December 1993, pp 203--216,
    
    [2] "Omniware: A universal substrate for mobile code"
    
    Nicholas C. Weaver  nweaverat_private
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2002 11:40:50 -0500
    From: Dan Franklin <dan@dan-franklin.com>
    Subject: Re: "Buffer Overflow" security problems (PGN, RISKS-21.84)
    
    > Perhaps in defense of Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie, C (and Unix, for
    > that matter) was created not for masses of incompetent programmers, but
    > for Ken and Dennis and a few immediate colleagues.
    
    Which only serves to emphasize Henry's point.  The code that those "few
    immediate colleagues" wrote also suffered from buffer overflow problems.
    Not only did many ordinary commands written at Bell Labs fail given long
    enough lines, but in one early version of UNIX, the (written in C) login
    command had a buffer overflow problem that permitted anyone to login by
    providing sufficiently long input.
    
    In other words, C buffer overflows have caused security problems ever since
    the language was created; and even the earliest users of C have been caught
    by it.  If software were really an engineering field, we would learn as
    engineers do to avoid tools and methods that persistently lead to serious
    problems.
    
    Note that gcc, the very popular GNU C Compiler, has experimental extensions
    to support bounds checking; see http://gcc.gnu.org/extensions.html.  Let us
    hope that one of these extensions makes its way out of the laboratory soon.
    If it became a standard gcc option, the current sorry situation might begin
    to improve.
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2002 11:47:16 -0500
    From: Kent Borg <kentborgat_private>
    Subject: Re: "Buffer Overflow" security problems (Baker, RISKS-21.84)
    
    A good start, but as we have heard before, be careful what you wish for.
    
    First, take a quick look at our current patent office (full of experts who
    still approve the silliest software patents) to judge whether our legal
    system (full of someone's peers) will be able to handle the concept "buffer
    overflow".
    
    Second, even though most open source software is written in C, it is
    still easier to assemble a reasonably secure Internet server out of
    common open source software than it is from the dominant proprietary
    options.  And open source software is getting better in this regard.
    
    On its face, however, it seems your proposal would have the effect of
    outlawing open source software.
    
    Rather, we might consider putting the liability on those who use the
    software -- for even good software can be misapplied -- encouraging users to
    choose well written products, and creating a market for well written
    products.
    
    Put another way, consider this example: instead of banning the "book of
    spells" we might instead sanction the "sorcerer's apprentice" who plugs an
    unprotected computer into the Internet and so lets the broomsticks fly.  I
    don't think you'll get the results you desire.
    
    Sure, maybe let the user pass on some blame to negligent companies, but
    let's not have the blame *start* at the individual programmer's keyboard.
    
    Or, put in Roman terms, have the various management (including those
    who commission it) stand under the new bridge, not the stone carvers.
    
    -kb, the programmer Kent who admits he has a conflict of interest here.
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2002 12:00:29 -0500 (EST)
    From: Jerrold Leichter <jerrold.leichterat_private>
    Subject: Re: "Buffer Overflow" security problems (Baker, RISKS-21.84)
    
    Henry Baker complains about the continuing stream of problems due to buffer
    overflows, and blames the C language.  PGN repeats a number of common
    defenses for C:
    
    - It's perfectly possible to write bad, buggy code in the best languages;
    - It's perfectly possible to write good code in the worst languages;
    - It's wrong to blame Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie (who, BTW, Mr. Baker 
      did not) because they never intended for C and Unix to be used the way 
      they are today;
    - Expanding on this, spreading the blame for the use of inappropriate
      Microsoft systems in life- and mission-critical applications to just about
      every one who's ever touched a computer.
    
    I've been a C programmer for some 20 years, a C++ programmer for 6.  I know
    well the advantages of the languages.  But I'm really tired of the excuses.
    
    No, Thompson and Ritchie are not to blame.  Anyone who actually reads what
    they've written over the years - papers or code - will know that they
    understand the tradeoffs and make them very carefully.  I wish my code could
    be as good as theirs!
    
    Unfortunately, I can't say the same about much of the C and C++ culture that
    grew up around their inventions over the years.  A programming community
    develops its own standards and styles, its own notions of what is important
    and what isn't important.  These standard, styles, and notions are extra-
    ordinarily influential.  Some of the influence is transmitted through
    teaching; much is transmitted through the code the community shares.  The
    most pernicious influences in the C/C++ community include:
    
    - An emphasis on performance as the highest goal.  For the most recent
      manifestation of this, you need only look to the C++ Standard Template
      Library (STL).  It has many brilliant ideas in it, but among the stated
      goals, from the first experiments, was to produce code "as efficient as
      the best hand-tuned code".  "As *safe*" or "as *reliable*" were simply not
      on the table.  The STL has attained its stated goals.
    
      Yes, there are debugging versions with things like bounds checking, but
      "everyone knows" that these are for testing; no real C++ programmer would
      think of shipping with them.
    
    - A large body of code that provides bad examples.  Why are there so many
      buffer overflows in C code?  The C libraries are, to this day, full of
      routines that take a pointer to a buffer "that must be large enough to
      contain the result".  No explicit size is passed.  I'm told that the guys
      at AT&T long ago removed gets(), a routine like that which reads input,
      from their own library.  It persists in the outside world - an accident
      waiting to happen.  Some routines have only very recently even appeared in
      alternative versions that have buffer length arguments - like sprintf()
      and its relatives.  Until snprintf() became widespread (no more recently
      than the last 5 years), it was extremely difficult to write code that
      safely wrote arbitrary data to an in-memory buffer.  (If you think it's
      easy, here's a quick question: How large must a buffer be to hold the
      result of formatting an IEEE double in f format with externally-specified
      precision?  Hint: The answer is *much* larger than the "about 16" that
      most people will initially guess.)
    
      As part of a C++ system I work on, I have a vector-like data structure.
      The index operation using [] notation is range- checked.  For special
      purposes, there's an UnsafeAt() index operation which is not.  Compare
      this to the analogous data structure in the C++ library, where [] is *not*
      range checked and at() is.  When the choice is between a[10] and a.at(10),
      which operation will the majority of programmers think they are supposed
      to use?  Which data structure would you rather see taught to the
      programmers who will develop a system your life will depend on?  (BTW,
      extensive profiling has yet to point to []'s range checking as a
      bottleneck, with the possible exception of the implementation of a hash
      table, where unsafeAt() could be used in a provably-correct way.)
    
    - A vicious circle between programmers and compiler developers.  C and C++
      programmers are taught to write code that uses pointers, not indices, to
      walk through arrays.  (The C++ STL actually builds its data structures on
      the pointer style.)  So why should C/C++ compiler developers put a lot of
      effort into generating good code for index-based loops?  C/C++ programmers
      are taught not to expect the compiler to do much in the way of common
      sub-expression elimination, code hoisting, and so on - the earliest C
      compilers ran on small machines and couldn't afford to.  Instead, C/C++
      programmers are taught to do it themselves - and the C language allows
      them to.  So why should C/C++ compiler developers bother to put much
      effort here?
    
      Put this together and you can see that checking your array accesses for
      out-of-range accesses can be a really bad idea: Your check code could run
      every time around the loop, instead of being moved out to the beginning as
      a FORTRAN programmer would expect.  I'm sure there are some - perhaps many
      - C/C++ compilers today that would provide such optimizations.  Given the
      generality of C and C++, it can be a challenge, but the techniques exist.
      However, it's an ingrained belief of C/C++ programmers - and a
      well-founded one - that they can't *rely* on the availability of such
      optimizations.  (A FORTRAN programmer can't point to a standard in his
      reliance on such optimizations, but no one today would accept a FORTRAN
      compiler that didn't do them.)
    
    I haven't even touched on the closely related issue of the dangers of manual
    memory management, and the continuing refusal of the C/C++ community to
    accept that most programs, and certainly most programmers, would be better
    off along every significant dimension with even a second-rate modern memory
    allocator and garbage collector -- especially in the multi-threaded code that's
    so common today.
    
    Is it *possible* to write reliable, safe code in C or C++?  Absolutely --
    just as it's *possible* to drive cross-country safely in a 1962 Chevy.  Does
    that mean the seat belts, break-away steering columns, disk brakes, air
    bags, and many other safety features we've added since then are unnecessary
    frills?
    
    Programming languages matter, but even more to the point, programming
    *culture* matters.  It's the latter, even more than the former, that's given
    us, and will continue to give us, so much dangerous code.  Until something
    makes it much more expensive than it is now to ship bad code -- and I
    believe that Mr. Baker is right, and the only thing that will do it is a few
    big liability judgments - nothing is likely to change.  Unfortunately,
    liability judgments will bring other changes to the programming world that
    may not be nearly so beneficial.
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Sun, 06 Jan 2002 09:08:42 -0800
    From: Henry Baker <hbaker1at_private>
    Subject: Re: "Buffer Overflow" security problems (Baker, RISKS-21.84)
    
    Ari Ollikainen wrote [to HB]:
    
    > And hardware with separate instruction and data space would not
    > necessarily solve the buffer overflow problem but at the very least would
    > avoid the inevitable compromise of reliability...  and the possibility of
    > corrupting running code.
    
    > There was a time when ANY flavor of unix was considered an oxymoronic
    > concept in regard to reliability and security.
    
    > Ari Ollikainen, OLTECO, Networking Architecture and Technology, 
    > P.O. BOX 20088, Stanford, CA 94309-0088 1-415 517 3519  Ariat_private
    
    Good point re separate I & D spaces ("Harvard" architecture).
    
    One of the reasons why people like network "appliances" (i.e.,
    non-programmable devices, except for firmware) is that they think that they
    are secure from viruses.  But if they have _any_ capability of executing
    code out of data space, then they are just as vulnerable to "buffer
    overflow" attacks.  In fact, because of their supposed invulnerability, they
    are probably _more_ susceptible, because no one bothers to run virus
    checking software on them.  Henry
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2001 16:14:32 -0800
    From: Dave Gillett <dgillettat_private>
    Subject: Re: Software glitch grounds new Nikon camera (Mautner, RISKS-21.83)
    
    About 18 months ago, I managed to get my Kodak digital camera into a state
    where it would not properly complete the power-up cycle, nor power down.  I
    was able to clear this state by removing the batteries; on re-insertion, a
    normal power-down state presented itself, and power-up proceeded normally.
    
    The jammed condition was the result of timing of some user interactions
    while other actions were in progress; I have never been able to reproduce it.
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2002 10:01:47 -0800
    From: Rob Slade <rsladeat_private>
    Subject: REVIEW: "Incident Response", Kenneth R. van Wyk/Richard Forna
    
    BKINCRES.RVW   20011001
    
    "Incident Response", Kenneth R. van Wyk/Richard Forna, 2001,
    0-59600-130-4, U$34.95/C$52.95
    %A   Kenneth R. van Wyk kenat_private
    %A   Richard Forna rickat_private
    %C   103 Morris Street, Suite A, Sebastopol, CA   95472
    %D   2001
    %G   0-59600-130-4
    %I   O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
    %O   U$34.95/C$52.95 800-998-9938 fax: 707-829-0104 nutsat_private
    %P   214 p.
    %T   "Incident Response"
    
    Incident response has, in the past, received short shrift in security
    literature.  It is also a rather vague term: what type of an incident are we
    talking about?  how big?  What type of response are we considering?
    protective?  defensive?  offensive?  The authors have provided us a starting
    point for consideration and the benefit of some years of experience, but
    this work is, unfortunately, less detailed than it might have been.
    
    Chapter one does not do a good job of defining incident response: the
    examples are instructive, but the material wanders through a number of
    topics without developing any central focus.  There is an examination of the
    strengths and shortcomings of various types of response teams, such as those
    internal to companies, related to vendors, or established by security
    management companies, in chapter two.  Planning, in chapter three, has some
    good points to consider, but doesn't offer a lot of guidance.  Chapter four,
    entitled "Mission and Capabilities," seems to be the core of the book,
    touching on staff, positions, training, legal considerations, procedures,
    and other issues.  A wide-ranging list of attack types, albeit with very
    terse descriptions, is given in chapter five.  The incident handling model
    presented in chapter six is vague but reasonable.  Chapter seven contains
    quick overviews of a number of detection tools, mostly software.  A few
    resources, generally Web sites, are given in chapter eight.
    
    This book is the result of considerable background and practice.  While
    there are no obvious errors and the material presents good advice, it is
    hard to be excited about the result.  Overall, the book seems to lack
    direction, and fails to present a structured and clear guide to the
    preparations necessary for dealing with computer incidents.  However, in the
    absence of other material it is better than nothing, and does raise the
    issues to be addressed.
    
    In response to the first draft of this review, one of the authors has
    responded that the intent of the book was not to address the techniques of
    incident response, but to provide management with an understanding of the
    subject.  That statement fits with the text, but is in some opposition to
    the assertion in the preface that the book is aimed at all who would need to
    respond to incidents, including systems administrators and other technical
    people.
    
    copyright Robert M. Slade, 2001   BKINCRES.RVW   20011001
    rsladeat_private  rsladeat_private  sladeat_private p1at_private
    http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev    or    http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~rslade
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: 12 Feb 2001 (LAST-MODIFIED)
    From: RISKS-requestat_private
    Subject: Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks)
    
     The RISKS Forum is a MODERATED digest.  Its Usenet equivalent is comp.risks.
    => SUBSCRIPTIONS: PLEASE read RISKS as a newsgroup (comp.risks or equivalent)
     if possible and convenient for you.  Alternatively, via majordomo,
     send e-mail requests to <risks-requestat_private> with one-line body
       subscribe [OR unsubscribe]
     which requires your ANSWERing confirmation to majordomoat_private .
     [If E-mail address differs from FROM:  subscribe "other-address <x@y>" ;
     this requires PGN's intervention -- but hinders spamming subscriptions, etc.]
     Lower-case only in address may get around a confirmation match glitch.
       INFO     [for unabridged version of RISKS information]
     There seems to be an occasional glitch in the confirmation process, in which
     case send mail to RISKS with a suitable SUBJECT and we'll do it manually.
       .MIL users should contact <risks-requestat_private> (Dennis Rears).
       .UK users should contact <Lindsay.Marshallat_private>.
    => The INFO file (submissions, default disclaimers, archive sites,
     copyright policy, PRIVACY digests, etc.) is also obtainable from
     http://www.CSL.sri.com/risksinfo.html  ftp://www.CSL.sri.com/pub/risks.info
     The full info file will appear now and then in future issues.  *** All
     contributors are assumed to have read the full info file for guidelines. ***
    => SUBMISSIONS: to risksat_private with meaningful SUBJECT: line.
    => ARCHIVES are available: ftp://ftp.sri.com/risks or
     ftp ftp.sri.com<CR>login anonymous<CR>[YourNetAddress]<CR>cd risks
       [volume-summary issues are in risks-*.00]
       [back volumes have their own subdirectories, e.g., "cd 20" for volume 20]
     http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/VL.IS.html      [i.e., VoLume, ISsue].
       Lindsay Marshall has also added to the Newcastle catless site a
       palmtop version of the most recent RISKS issue and a WAP version that
       works for many but not all telephones: http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/w/r
     http://the.wiretapped.net/security/info/textfiles/risks-digest/ .
     http://www.planetmirror.com/pub/risks/ ftp://ftp.planetmirror.com/pub/risks/
    ==> PGN's comprehensive historical Illustrative Risks summary of one liners:
        http://www.csl.sri.com/illustrative.html for browsing,
        http://www.csl.sri.com/illustrative.pdf or .ps for printing
    
    ------------------------------
    
    End of RISKS-FORUM Digest 21.85
    ************************
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon Jan 07 2002 - 14:40:10 PST