Re: Be very careful from now on... -- MIDRANGE-L

I do agree that it is different from Open Source due to the copyright laws,
but I highly doubt only "bad people" are looking at the code.  I could be
sure that anyone who codes for an operating system has interest in looking
at it.

The main point though that this was all about is that "security through
obscurity" is not a good thing and that if there is some glaring security
hole that the source code reveals, in all probability, it would have been
eventually found anyway, if not already.  I would say the biggest minus
isn't the code itself, but being able to see how MS codes and their thinking
and being able to guess where other holes may lie.

As for the x-files guy, ya never know.  This could just be a honey pot that
MS put out intentionally. ;)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Rich" <james@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Midrange Systems Technical Discussion" <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 12:27 PM
Subject: Re: Be very careful from now on...


> On Tue, 17 Feb 2004, Adam Lang wrote:
>
> > The reverse is also true, which is the theory behind open source.  The
good
> > guys get to see the code now also and can see what holes there are that
only
> > MS knew about.  that is why your comment "clearly seeing things that we
> > can'" is wrong.  Now you can see as much as the bad guy can see.  The
code
> > being out there puts everyone on even footing in regards to knowing how
> > things work.
>
> In this case that isn't necessarily true.  With open source, the good guys
> do get to see the code, and do far more than the bad guys bother to.
> However, the good guys don't want trouble with MS and don't want to
> violate any copyright laws or use technology without license or taint
> their ability to work unfettered.  Looking at the MS code can cause all of
> these problems.  Because of the license of the code, the good guys aren't
> looking at it.  They don't want to jeopardize their careers by looking at
> unlicensed code, and I don't want to either.
>
> James Rich
>
> "As for security, being lectured by Microsoft is like receiving wise words
> on the subject of compassion from Stalin."
>       -- mormop on lwn.net
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