Re: LZ: Re: INTERNET VIRUS ALERT (FWD)

Subject: Re: LZ: Re: INTERNET VIRUS ALERT (FWD)
From: Mel Tsai <tsaimelv@pilot.msu.edu>
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 1996 00:09:15 GMT
In-Reply-To: <325D8002.708B@mail.polarnet.com>

On Thu, 10 Oct 1996 15:00:18 -0800, you wrote:
>> Mike Berry wrote:
>> The good times virus was a prank, it is impossible to get a virus by
>> reading an e-mail.
>
>**********
>
>I wouldn't be too sure about this, I've heard about these types of=20
>viruses before.  With netscape and i.e. being able to run inline=20
>attachments and java applets, this seems very possible.
>
>Eric Barker
>

Actually, the java specification has a lot of security built into it,
so applets cannot be descructive even if the programmer wanted it to.
The worst thing an applet can do is hang the machine, and in most
environments you can just quit the java interpreter (in most cases
netscape) manually if that happens.

Also, no email server automatically decodes and runs any attachment,
so there's no risk there.  I do believe that email bombs are possible,
but they would probably only work on a specific email server because
some sort of loophole in the server was found.

-Mel

<pre>
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The TI-85 Memory Expansion Homepage
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