Re: [cobalt-users] OT brief note on: CERT AdvisoryCA-2003-25Buffer Overflow in Sendmail

[Larry Smith <lesmith@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Friday 19 September 2003 19:56, Dave's List Addy wrote:
> Zeffie seems to think that we should not trust these outside package
> builders, but yet he offers to do repairs and give installs to others. Hmmm
> confusing attack on his part.

Not that I am any way qualified or willing or able to speak for Zeffie - but I 
sincerely believe the point he was trying to get across is _not_ to blatantly 
accept just any "pkg" that someone puts out there that looks interesting or 
that says on the surface that it fixes all your problems and makes toast 
too....

The analogy, albeit somewhat poor, are all the worm/virus/trojans that have 
come out lately - most grabbing an address from the infected persons machine 
since the probabity of a message coming from "someone" you have dealt with 
before is going to be "trusted" well before something totally strange.

I believe that just about everyone here, self included, trys to "contribute" 
in our own way.  Some by making packages; some by helpful hints, 
instructions, and such; and some by being the "test-beds" to first install 
the stuff others of us come up with and let us know what works and what 
doesn't.  Too often we each let the "friction" out weigh the "bigger-picture" 
benefits of this group.

Bottom line:  basic usenet netiquette 101 - ignore the first two "flames" - or 
as my grandmother put it - engage brain before putting mount (fingers) in 
gear. (YES, this part is meant as a joke)!!!

-- 
Larry Smith
SysAd ECSIS.NET
sysad@xxxxxxxxx