Internet Worm

[nlawson () galaxy csc calpoly edu (Norwell Louis Awson)]

Everyone seems to say "the bugs the worm exploited haven't been fixed yet".
Look at the list:

Bug..                                   Fix...
Sendmail debug hole                     fixed.. use Sendmail 8.6.9

Vax finger stack overflow               fixed.. no fingerd presently uses
                                        gets()

Guessing users passwords                Use npasswd or passwd+
                                        Crack 4.1 with UFC is much faster

Trusted hosts and 'r' commands          Not fixed.  Users will always be
                                        the hole in your system.  Get rid
                                        of any 'r' commands if this REALLY
                                        bugs you.

So, this big -secret- that everyone seems to be hiding is that having an
rhosts is a security hole, and it is still exploitable??  So what.  The real
reason that the source is not here is it would be honoring the writer to put
it up for public ftp.  No security expert that spent many hours
disassembling it wants to waste their effort on the public.  It's been said
before, everyone regards their work as infinitely valuable, no matter how
useless it is in the present day.