FC4 slimfast slimfest

[Paul A. Houle]

On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 16:50:55 -0600, Jason L Tibbitts III  
<tibbs at math.uh.edu> wrote:

>>>>>> "NM" == Nicolas Mailhot <Nicolas.Mailhot at laPoste.net> writes:
>
> NM> You do know that postfix design is a common example in advanced
> NM> security CS courses right ?
>
> What on Earth does that have to do with anything?  I'm sure advanced
> race mechanics study Ferrari engines, but I don't need one to drive to
> the store.
>
> I guess what you're trying to say is that all of the extra stuff that
> Postfix comes with is secure, so it doesn't hurt anything to have it
> on the machine.  That's something definitely contradicted by those
> advanced security CS courses you speak of.
>

	Most real postfix installations aren't going to be qualified as secure by  
the authors of postfix,  because if you want to implement POP  
authentication you need to install Cyrus SASL -- which is the kind of  
"security" software that introduces two buffer overflows for every  
security hole it plugs.  Throw in an average virus filter

(see  
http://news.com.com/Take+three+Antivirus+apps+could+spread+infection/2100-1002_3-5589439.html?tag=nefd.top)

and spam filter and I know it can be cracked.  If you made a homebrew  
system,  it's likely that nobody's going to spend the time to weaponize an  
attack,  but ship an integrated system with every copy of FC4 and it's  
worth the effort.