From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,5a942ffa7efa9386,start X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1995-03-06 17:02:37 PST Path: bga.com!news.sprintlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!paladin.american.edu!auvm!J64.STRATCOM.AF.MIL!BennettC Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Encoding: 17 TEXT X-Mailer: Microsoft Mail V3.0 Message-ID: <2F5B780E@SMTPGATE2.STRATCOM.AF.MIL> Date: Mon, 6 Mar 1995 13:01:00 PST Sender: Ada programming language From: "Bennett, Chip (KTR) ~U" Subject: Should internet support software be written in Ada? Date: 1995-03-06T13:01:00-08:00 List-Id: I just read an interesting article in Federal Computer Week. The article, titled "Energy group uncovers hole in Web software" is rather old (Feb 20), so if this ground has already been covered, I apologize for rehashing it. The article points out that the NCSA's httpd version 1.3 has a flaw where a hacker might be able to overflow internal buffers and gain root access. Point 1: Didn't we already go through this several years back with a UNIX mail server that had a similar problem? Any history buffs remember that one? Point 2: I going to make a huge leap here and assume that httpd is written in C. I'd bet that if the software had been written in a constraint checking language like Ada, the problem would not have occurred. Comments? Chip Bennett