The Death of TCP/IP

Mon Aug 6 17:15:28 UTC 2001

Wojtek Zlobicki wrote:
> 
> <RANT>
> 
> Nothing other than anti-Microsoft propaganda.  You cannot blame Microsoft
> for high market share.  The main reason that *Nix hosts are generally more
> resilient to these type of worms is that it is less likely for a non
> informed administrator to administer a *Nix sever.  If everyone that had a
> IIS box available on the big I, installed all related patches, worms like
> Code Red would never propagate very far.
> 
No.... That's not true.  The reason *Nix are generally more resilient
is because most of the MUAs and other code on *Nix boxen don't run
arbitrary code from the internet without requiring specific intervention
from the user to cause the code to be accepted and run.  (No ActiveX,
no Virus Building Script (VBS), no OLE will run other software and
activate
hostile macros embedded in the code, etc.)

Additionally, various *Nix hosts are usually built from code that has
been
subject to a fair amount of public review (in source form), and the
manufacturers of *Nix code have generally been more open and forthcoming
about the problems in their code.  There is a complete mindset
difference
towards quality among most of the *Nix manufacturers vs. Micro$oft.

Yes, there was a fair amount of anti-Micro$oft propoganda and rant in
the article.  However, most of it was backed up with documentable
factual
data on the shortcomings of Micro$oft products.  Further, his statements
about the mindset of how Micro$oft determines priorities in coding
are as good a hypothesis as anyone, and certainly represent a plausible
explanation for the current state of Micro$oft products.

> Raw socket support in NOT a bad thing.  I wonder if Robert Cringely and
> Steve Gibson are friends.
> 
True, Raw socket support alone is NOT a bad thing.  Raw socket support
on
hundreds of thousands of hosts that have well known exploitable holes
that
can easily be used by any script kiddie to generate widespread DDOS
attacks
in a completely anonymous fashion little more than a downloaded script
are a bad thing.  You'll notice he didn't rail against raw socket
support
in NT, *Nix, etc.  He railed against an OS with all the security of
Win3.1
being given raw socket support.

> Has Robert studied TCP at all.  Does he realize that there are already about
> 400 varieties of TCP, with many hacks and alterations.  MS/TCP ??  A
> proprietary MSFT network/transport protocol !!
> 
Most of those 400 varieties interoperate with current IP.  If you look
at the
history of VINES IP, as in his example, I think you will find that his
concerns
are not as far off as you would hope.

> My favorite part of the article
> 
> "Say goodbye to TCP/IP and to anonymous connections of any kind. Hello to
> Hailstorm, tracking everything down to the last mile, and a more
> business-friendly Internet with prioritized packet-handling. "
> 
Mine too.  Hopefully, folks will pull their heads out of Micro$oft sand
long enough to realize just what this could mean.

> </RANT>
> 
> I really encourage anyone with a tough skin, and looking for a good laugh to
> read this article.
> 
I really encourage anyone running Micro$oft products in a production or
connected
environment to read the article with an open mind and attempt to truly
consider
the security model implemented in the various Micro$oft operating
systems and
the history of Micro$oft on the internet.

Owen

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Robert Hough" <rch at acidpit.org>
> To: <nanog at merit.edu>
> Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2001 12:23 AM
> Subject: The Death of TCP/IP
> 
> >
> > Felt like sharing this most amusing article that I discovered in my
> > Inbox this morning:
> >
> > http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20010802.html
> >
> > --
> > Robert Hough (rch at acidpit.org)

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