3 ms·

legal rights? "I'm on the side of the masses, not that of the rulers." He is pretty clear...

by hackan 3y ago

bell-cot 3y ago
Reaction: How does that ideal play out, when a few kiddies start running fork bombs on a *nix system that Mr. Stallman wants to use?
- thriftwy 3y ago
  Fork bomb does not need root to function.
- berbec 3y ago
  :(){ :|:& };: explodes fine as a regular user
  - TillE 3y ago
    Only if you haven't configured sane limits.
- NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
  This actually went on for many years. rms famously refused to secure his account @gnu.ai.mit.edu, and so the machine basically became an open shell server for every hacker in the world, ca. 1992. Lots of hijinks ensued, and it was usually not possible to do anything useful in that account, since it was usually broken or pwned in remarkable ways. But they were wild, fun times.
  - segfaultbuserr 3y ago
    In a similar vein, EFF cofounder John Gilmore famously refused to secure his SMTP server at toad.com [1]. He believed SMTP should be open for all just like the old days, potentially making it basically an open relay for every hacker and spammer in the world. And so, he got into trouble with his ISP. Gilmore said the server was in fact rate-limited and the abuse potential was not as large as it appeared to be. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gilmore_(activist)#Activism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gilmore_(activist)#Activi...
    - NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
      Hah! I don't doubt it, but amusingly that section of the article is blissfully free of citations or sources, just some original research. Cool stuff. I used to do dumb stuff by telnetting to mail servers, back in the day. I think I really annoyed a few coworkers with that; one said he almost called CERT. I think it was one of the earliest Cybersecurity realizations I had about how insecure the Internet really was, based as it was on blind trust among hosts that were supposed to have legitimate admins in control. I found that it was so easy to telnet to a mail server and feed it whatever you wanted, this must be the tip of the iceberg. And it was!

legal rights? "I'm on the side of the masses, not that of the rulers." He is pretty clear...

by hackan 3y ago

legal rights? "I'm on the side of the masses, not that of the rulers." He is pretty clear...

Reaction: How does that ideal play out, when a few kiddies start running fork bombs on a *nix system that Mr. Stallman wants to use?

thriftwy 3y ago
Fork bomb does not need root to function.
berbec 3y ago
:(){ :|:& };: explodes fine as a regular user
- TillE 3y ago
  Only if you haven't configured sane limits.
NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
This actually went on for many years. rms famously refused to secure his account @gnu.ai.mit.edu, and so the machine basically became an open shell server for every hacker in the world, ca. 1992. Lots of hijinks ensued, and it was usually not possible to do anything useful in that account, since it was usually broken or pwned in remarkable ways. But they were wild, fun times.
- segfaultbuserr 3y ago
  In a similar vein, EFF cofounder John Gilmore famously refused to secure his SMTP server at toad.com [1]. He believed SMTP should be open for all just like the old days, potentially making it basically an open relay for every hacker and spammer in the world. And so, he got into trouble with his ISP. Gilmore said the server was in fact rate-limited and the abuse potential was not as large as it appeared to be. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gilmore_(activist)#Activism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gilmore_(activist)#Activi...
  - NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
    Hah! I don't doubt it, but amusingly that section of the article is blissfully free of citations or sources, just some original research. Cool stuff. I used to do dumb stuff by telnetting to mail servers, back in the day. I think I really annoyed a few coworkers with that; one said he almost called CERT. I think it was one of the earliest Cybersecurity realizations I had about how insecure the Internet really was, based as it was on blind trust among hosts that were supposed to have legitimate admins in control. I found that it was so easy to telnet to a mail server and feed it whatever you wanted, this must be the tip of the iceberg. And it was!