Finding Passwords

[Stanley Friesen]

In article <22024:Oct606:35:1090 at kramden.acf.nyu.edu> brnstnd at kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) writes:
>In article <652 at puck.mrcu> paj at uk.co.gec-mrc (Paul Johnson) writes:
>> If you are worried about physical line security then use encryption.

>All that's necessary is that the concentrator and the computer accept some
>key sequence (such as break) to unconditionally mean ``I want to talk to
>someone I can trust, so gimme a proper prompt and shove any middlemen
>out of the way.'' That's it.

This does *not* deal with *physical* line security.  A *physical* *tap*
on the line between the computer and the terminal cannot be bypassed by
simple software means.  Just because you know that you are talking to
login (or whatever) does *not* mean nobody is listening passively on the
same com link!  For physical line security encryption and physical access
restriction are the *only* two possible solutions.

-- 
---------------
uunet!tdatirv!sarima				(Stanley Friesen)