Re: Unqualified Postings

[aleph1 () SECURITYFOCUS COM (Elias Levy)]

I am killing this thread. That being said the reason I approved the
message in the first place is to respond to it publicly as other people
may be asking themselves the same question.

As other have already pointed out these free or shareware programs
can actually surpass many commercial programs in number of installations.
How many people are using WinGate? More than those using MS Proxy.
Who many people are using one of the free SMTP/POP/IMAP servers? More than
those using MS Exchange.

Please note that this is not limited to Windows programs. Go visit
freshmeat.net and download some linux/open source programs and see
how many you can break. These programs are in use every day by many people.

A vulnerability in one of these programs is a just a important as a
vulnerability in a MS product or Solaris. Maybe the people using them should
not have as high an expectation of quality/security. Nonetheless they
programs are deployed and people are vulnerable. So yes, posts pointing
out vulnerabilities in such programs are welcomed on the list.

--
Elias Levy
Security Focus
http://www.securityfocus.com/