xxx.lanl.gov a real threat?

John Lammers (JLAMMERS@CSI.compuserve.com)
12 Jul 96 10:39:58 EDT


This isn't really related to the ongoing debate about xxx.lanl.gov, but just a
security concern.
Does anyone have a good feel for how real the threat from xxx.lanl.gov is? I
mean, the "Countdown to Trinity" message is somewhat imposing, but I can't help
but think that it's a lot of overdramatic bluster to scare people away (which is
a bit odd, given that they're claiming it's a reprisal against robots).

The only real threat that I can think of is that they'd spew the results of an
infinite loop to you, filling up your hard drive, which is really sort of
anticlimactic after the skull-and-cross bones, take-no-prisoners,
countdown-to-trinity stuff. I suppose they might be able to spew mail to you
also, or ping-storm your IP address, though for some (maybe even many) users
that's not going to be so much an attack on the offender as on the offender's
network/service provider.

Seems to me that it's a fairly empty threat for such aggressive posturing.
However, I'm not really in the business of security or trying to launch network
attacks, so it could be that I'm missing something pretty substantial.

Maybe I shouldn't have included the xxx site name in the title, because I really
don't want to start another thread on the rights/wrongs of xxx or robot
creators. I'm just interested in what a site's or individual's vulnerability
REALLY is (for academic interest only, I assure you).
-- John Lammers, CompuServe Natural Language Technology Research