> Thank you for the URL, but the question is more in line with the recent > splash of IDS articles reviewing systems and why IDS systems are important > in detecting vulnerabilities and potential hackers. Since the definition > has been slightly exaggerated to get the hype up about certain products, it > would be nice to have a 90's version of the definition Eric's screed is still pretty reasonable. "Hack" and "hacker" can have different connotations depending on the tone of voice in which it is said, much as "bad" recently had in certain segments of our society. The denotation for "hack" is a piece of software that is non-obvious, that performs a function, and does it perhaps in a somewhat inspired way. "The Art of Computer Programming" personified. [Note that not all art is GOOD art.] Things done in a pedestrian, software engineering manner are rarely "hacks". Things done in a brilliant, inspired, yet engineering manner may qualify as hacks - this gets subjective. Oh, heck, the whole thing is subjective. A pejorative tone of voice - "Oh Gawd, what a hack!" - connotes that the hack in question is inspired and bad. Bad how? It may be crufty, ugly, inelegant, non-extensible ... whatever violates the perceiver's aesthetics. I tend to think of any added code that violates a program's initial model and pattern [assuming such exist] as a bad hack in this sense. If it's unreadable and unmaintainable, I think it's a bad hack. In this sense, I think of the hacker as someone wading into a surgical field with a dull woodaxe, and laying waste. The result might work under some set of circumstances, but who knows? An admiring tone of voice - "Neat hack!" - connotes that the person saying it wishes he were sufficiently gifted [or lucky] to have thought of the hack in question. For me, a neat hack must be modular [so I can perceive and appreciate it], clear [however many times I may have to read it to understand it, depending on the genius of the hacker], readable, and must fit the model of the problem and the rest of the program. In this sense, I think of the hacker as an artist - one who works in the medium of translating required actions into the art form of programming languages, and who may or may not lay down sonnet-like constraints on his or her art form. As you can tell, perception of a "hack" is more related to perception of art than it is to objective measurement. AS A SMALL AND NASTY SUBSET, there are "hackers" whose inspired works consist of finding the "holes" in others' software, and exploiting them to intrude into systems running said software. These are more properly termed "crackers". -- Joe Yao jsdyat_private - Joseph S. D. Yao COSPO Computer Support EMT-A/B ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This message is not an official statement of COSPO policies.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Apr 13 2001 - 12:59:39 PDT