OSEC

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Subject: Re: qmail, from bugtraq
From: Bennett Todd (betrahul.net)
Date: Mon Jan 31 2000 - 12:16:24 CST

2000-01-31-13:04:11 Christopher Petrilli:
> I believe the point though was that Wietse would never state
> categorically that Postfix is "perfect," simply that it has no
> known holes.

Never is a very, very long time.

> To state that it has ZERO defects is an act of arrogance, not
> engineering.

There's plenty of arrogance in djb's neighborhood, no doubt about
it. The really damned irritating thing is that it seems to be
justified; if we could respond with a good put-down citing
counterexamples the arrogance wouldn't be nearly so annoying. Yes,
djb seems to think he's God. The problem is, people don't seem to be
able to disprove him.

qmail was designed with security as a primary goal. djb has
experience and a good track record at designing and writing secure
software. A big reward was offered for finding a security hole in
qmail, it went uncollected. More interestingly, djb is so obnoxious
that any number of good people have gotten so pissed off at him that
they'd do _anything_ to find a security bug in qmail, just to wipe
the smug grin off his face, and they've all failed. Call it
arrogance, but it's evidently not incompatible with engineering, and
at this point I think it reinforces the engineering.

It's easy to prove him a liar. One counterexample is all it takes.
Please, find that counterexample. People will be lining up halfway
across this continent to buy you beers if you do:-).

-Bennett

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