From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI, T_SCC_BODY_TEXT_LINE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 14577 invoked from network); 30 Jul 2023 18:23:15 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (50.116.15.146) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 30 Jul 2023 18:23:15 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 13DE6410DF; Mon, 31 Jul 2023 04:23:10 +1000 (AEST) Received: from oclsc.com (oclsc.com [206.248.137.164]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 57AEF410DD for ; Mon, 31 Jul 2023 04:22:56 +1000 (AEST) Received: by oclsc.org id 54C834FBD3; Sun, 30 Jul 2023 14:22:55 -0400 (EDT) Received: by oclsc.org id 7B88B640CDB; Sun, 30 Jul 2023 14:22:55 -0400 (EDT) To: tuhs@tuhs.org Message-ID: <1B96127522E338B678C2F77EB615BFFF.for-standards-violators@oclsc.org> Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2023 14:22:55 -0400 (EDT) From: norman@oclsc.org (Norman Wilson) Message-ID-Hash: E766E2ADWOOCBCYKCOIUPLQ4SH4KJLPS X-Message-ID-Hash: E766E2ADWOOCBCYKCOIUPLQ4SH4KJLPS X-MailFrom: norman@oclsc.org X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [TUHS] Re: Cool talk on Unix and Sendmail history, by Eric Allman List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: Doug McIlroy: This reminds me of how I agonized over Mike Lesk's refusal to remove remote execution from uucp. ==== Uux, the remote-execution mechanism I remember from uucp, had rather better utility than the famous Sendmail back-door: it was how uucp carried mail, by sending a file to be handed to mailer on the remote system. It was clearly dangerous if the remote site accepted any command, but as shipped in V7 only a short list of remote commands was allowed: mail rmail lpr opr fsend fget. (As uucp was used to carry other things like netnews, the list was later extended by individual sites, and eventually moved to a file so reconfiguration needn't recapitulate compilation). Not the safest of mechanisms, but at least in V7 it had a use other than Mike fixing your system for you. Is there some additional history here? e.g. was the list of permitted commands added after arguments about safety, or some magic command that let Mike in removed? Or was there a different remote-execution back door I don't remember and don't see in a quick look at uuxqt.c? Norman Wilson Toronto ON