Re: Virii on vger.kernel.org lists

Riley Williams
2001-07-31T22:42:15Z

Hi William.

> Of course, non of the common "holes" in OE are left unfixed.
> People should be responsible to update their mail clients.
> People using Windows (like me) should also be responsible to
> maintain current virus software themselves, rather than leaving
> that job to the mail server, which seems like an unfair burden
> on the mail server to me.

Depends how you view it - I'd much rather host my mailing lists on a
server that I knew scans for virii and deals with any it finds than
one that doesn't.

> I personally use McAfee, as it will auto update itself
> periodically if you tell it to. Using OE as patched, and McAfee,
> Virii like the one that just hit are not a problem - they are
> caught and killed before they can execute...

McAfee isn't a guarantee, no more than any other virii scanner is. I
used to use McAfee, and had it in auto-update mode. I still got hit by
FOURTEEN virii within half an hour of it updating itself!

> I got hit once (and if you search through the archives, you'll
> find a message from me about it - one that I caught holy hell
> from many of you for, but anyway) and learned from that incident
> to secure my system. It has not happened since, and won't if I
> am careful.

Even if you're careful, you can still get hit, so don't rest on your
laurels...

> The user has the responsibility to be careful, I think. Not the
> list server.

My own viewpoint is somewhat less blase than yours - the more virii
scanners between the originator and me, the lower the likelihood of my
systems getting a virii.

>> Is there any way we can set up an automatic virus scan of all
>> attachments at vger, and have it deal with any virii at source?

> Yes.

>> Come to that, is there a decent Linux-based virus scanner around?

> Yes.

Perhaps you'd care to give details, since you're so blase about it...

>>> It is analogous on how I am seeing the UNRELIABILITY of people's
>>> email systems. I see only failure cases, never succesfull
>>> deliveries!

>> Same here...

> No, you both miss the point.

Oh?

> Some PEOPLE are ignorant or unreliable...

Whether people are ignorant or unreliable has about as much to do with
whether their computers can catch virii as with whether they can. The
only people likely to claim otherwise are virii writers, IMHO.

> The email system performs exactly as instructed, no matter if it
> runs on Linux, or *BSD, or Mickey$oft.

The basic point of this duscussion is that the email system's
instructions are flawed and need changing.

Best wishes from Riley.