In article <1995Mar22.152435.42037@miavx1>, [log in to unmask] (James McCutcheon) writes: > In article <1995Mar22.131006.42022@miavx1>, [log in to unmask] > (Randy 'Lerxst' Kaelber) writes: >> Ooo! Veddy Sceddy! That means you could do nasty things like telnet to v1, >> telnet to hal, telnet to v1, telnet to hal, telnet to phoenix, telnet to hal. >> ad nauseum until you just sort of ruled the gandalf. > > Ohhh.. that's a good idea. Let's just give newbies all kinds of ways to bring > the system to its knees and post them in a FAQ to mu.vms. *rolls eyes* > > Sorry, it just seemed a little crazy. > James Well, James, why don't you give it a try and see how long it will be before you're up for disciplinary review and they run you out of here on rails? Don't you think pointing out a problem BEFORE it happens is at least a little better than all of us chatting about it after the fact? I guarantee you that if anyone out there reading this wanted to do something nasty like that, it would only be a matter of time before someone thought to try it. BY recognizing it as a problem, we can watch for it and possibly stop it, instead of just being victims. There's even another benefit: suppose there is a newbie that thinks they have to go to the gandalf every time they want to go to another box, so the telnet the gandalf and then telnet to a new machine and do this several times. Now, they know not to do this! Two benefits in mentioning it: 1. Lowers the chance of someone doing it innocently, not realizing that they're killing the network. 2. Lowers the chance of someone doing intentionally, becuase it HAS been discussed, and presumably is at least being watched for. I don't think an academic dismissal would be worth playing a practical joke on a bunch of computer geeks. There are far worse things those of less reputable bent could learn in the comp.security.* and other related groups... do you suggest we ban those in the interest of system security? -- Randy Kaelber, Subsistence Programmer. http://miavx1.muohio.edu/~rskaelber/homepage.html other E-mail home: [log in to unmask]