Same Nightmare, Different Bed

There's no excuse for the security problems in Windows NT, but after following computer-security issues and using Unix (as well as NT) for some time, I'm surprised to see Unix being held up as a standard. Many of the same sorts of flaws discussed in the article "Déjà Vu All Over Again" are still present in Unix 25 years later. (See ftp://info.cert.org/pub/cert_advisories.)

And because the flaws are so obvious, no one even bothers to talk much anymore about how the configuration of typical Unix-based NFS servers leaves them expose d to the simplest kinds of attacks, including those that can result in the destruction of data. By default, NFS servers simply trust -- without requiring any cryptographic or password-based proof of identity -- that their clients are who they say they are. The computer industry and computer users have a long road ahead of them to reach the goal of a truly secure computing environment.

Nathaniel Mishkin
mishkin@worldnet.att.net