Sysmask security challenge: 1 week and +300 arbitrary code assaults, still resisting

On 20 Apr 2005 13:14:30 GMT, Casper H.S. Dik <Casper.Dik@Sun.COM>
wrote in message <<426655b6$0$150$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>>:

> >One would expect that you know the difference between hacker and cracker
> >...
>
> One would expect people to know that common usage dictates the
> meaning of words, and not a fringe group of experts.

Did you mean a fringe group like the OpenSolaris Community Advisory
Board?

Ku Karlovsky <nospam@nospam.nospam.not> writes:

>On 20 Apr 2005 13:14:30 GMT, Casper H.S. Dik <Casper.Dik@Sun.COM>
>wrote in message <<426655b6$0$150$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>>:

>> >One would expect that you know the difference between hacker and cracker
>> >...
>>
>> One would expect people to know that common usage dictates the
>> meaning of words, and not a fringe group of experts.

>Did you mean a fringe group like the OpenSolaris Community Advisory
>Board?


What, re we all so touchy about losing the hacker/cracker battle
that we show that we run out of arguments by using ad-hominem attacks?

A long time ago I, too, fervently argued for the hacker/cracker
distinction; but at least I'm man enough to admit that this
is a lost cause; and smart enough to understand how words
derive their meaning. If 99.9% of the community thinks
that a hacker is someone who breaks into computers without permission,
then that is good enough for me (and I'm being generous giving
the hacker/cracker distinction support of .1% of the population)

Oh, and I do consider myself one of the "fringe group of experts";
I've just given up on the cracker/hacker distinction.

Casper
--
Expressed in this posting are my opinions. They are in no way related
to opinions held by my employer, Sun Microsystems.
Statements on Sun products included here are not gospel and may
be fiction rather than truth.

Casper H.S. Dik <Casper.Dik@Sun.COM> writes:

> A long time ago I, too, fervently argued for the hacker/cracker
> distinction; but at least I'm man enough to admit that this
> is a lost cause; and smart enough to understand how words
> derive their meaning. If 99.9% of the community thinks
> that a hacker is someone who breaks into computers without permission,
> then that is good enough for me (and I'm being generous giving
> the hacker/cracker distinction support of .1% of the population)

This sounds much more like the Casper Dik we all know and respect. I think
I'll just ignore the posting made before about "hacker vs cracker" as one
made on his (rare) bad days.

Dragan

P.S. Althogh I have no idea what it all had to do with manhood :-)


--
Dragan Cvetkovic,

To be or not to be is true. G. Boole No it isn't. L. E. J. Brouwer

!!! Sender/From address is bogus. Use reply-to one !!!

In article <4266bca2$0$97029$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>,
Casper H.S. Dik <Casper.Dik@Sun.COM> wrote:
:What, re we all so touchy about losing the hacker/cracker battle
:that we show that we run out of arguments by using ad-hominem attacks?

The poster specifically used "true hacker" complete with quotes.
That sharpens the definition compared to hacker with no 'true'
and no 'quotes'.

Perhaps the battle is lost in the media, but when one specifically
qualifies hacker with "true" then one should be prepared for people
taking umbrage to the word being misused.
--
Would you buy a used bit from this man??

Casper H.S. Dik wrote:
> Ku Karlovsky <nospam@nospam.nospam.not> writes:
>
>
>>On 20 Apr 2005 13:14:30 GMT, Casper H.S. Dik <Casper.Dik@Sun.COM>
>>wrote in message <<426655b6$0$150$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>>:
>
>
>>>>One would expect that you know the difference between hacker and cracker
>>>>...
>>>
>>>One would expect people to know that common usage dictates the
>>>meaning of words, and not a fringe group of experts.
>
>
>>Did you mean a fringe group like the OpenSolaris Community Advisory
>>Board?
>
>
>
> What, re we all so touchy about losing the hacker/cracker battle
> that we show that we run out of arguments by using ad-hominem attacks?
>
> A long time ago I, too, fervently argued for the hacker/cracker
> distinction; but at least I'm man enough to admit that this
> is a lost cause; and smart enough to understand how words
> derive their meaning. If 99.9% of the community thinks
> that a hacker is someone who breaks into computers without permission,
> then that is good enough for me (and I'm being generous giving
> the hacker/cracker distinction support of .1% of the population)
>
> Oh, and I do consider myself one of the "fringe group of experts";
> I've just given up on the cracker/hacker distinction.
>
> Casper
That's for sure. Most non gurus think hacker is cracker. That is the
language so live with it.

Casper H.S. Dik wrote:
> Dragan Cvetkovic <me@privacy.net> writes:
>
>>One would expect that established meaning of words doesn't change just
>>because some newspaper guys who are uninformed and don't know any better
>>spread the wrong semantics among the public who doesn't know any better.
>
> When the newspapers used the work it had already established it
> second meaning. Get over it. (And the hollywood movie wasn't called
> "hackers" for nothing)

Still it is wrong. At least, let us "educated people" use the correct
term :-)

azuredu wrote:
>>I run my Web browser as an unprivileged user in a chroot ghetto
>>that has no setuid programs, no devices and no files shared with
>
> Please read the following for discussion of what can be secured for a
> browser and what cannot.
>
> http://wims.unice.fr/sysmask/doc/example.txt
>
> In any case, sysmask offers more protection than a simple chroot,
> because the process can be made much less exposed to kernel
> vulnerabilities.

If your system is so perfect, why is it not already in the kernel ?

In comp.os.linux.security Walter Roberson <roberson@ibd.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca> wrote:

> I don't know how to break public key cryptography (short of factoring
> the primes.)

Factoring _primes_ sounds like a neat trick.

However, how 'bout figuring out how to avoid ridiculous crosspost lists,
and how to set followup-to?

--
Cheers, "Heedless of grammar, they all cried 'It's him!'"
Rick Moen -- R.H. Barham, _Misadventure at Margate_
rick@linuxmafia.com