Re: Hey old people

[Tom Van Vleck <thvv () multicians org>]

On Dec 21, 2005, at 12:48 PM, Blue Boar wrote:

> Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu wrote:
> > Certain larger models of the IBM S/360 had "imprecise interrupts"  
> > - meaning that
> > a program check could be recognized after the instruction had already
> > completed.  This was particularly a problem on the mod 95, which  
> > had a 6-deep instruction
>
> Now you're talking!  In fact, I have a reference to a vulnerability  
> that sounds just like what you describe, but it doesn't name the OS  
> or hardware.  Do you know if the problem was *known* in '69?  Do  
> you have any kind of documentation that was written up at the  
> time?  Sounds like you know it yourself pretty well... possibly  
> your word might qualify.
>
> Alternately, anyone have a copy of this?
>
> Goheen, S.M., and Fiske, R.S., OS/360 Computer Security Penetration  
> Exercise, Mitre Corp., Bedford Mass., October 1972.
>
> (Christie at Mitre is supposed to be looking for us... but in case  
> any of you have it handy, or you know... over in the university  
> library ;) )

Wow. Bob Fiske was one of my room mates freshman year at MIT (1961).
And another friend of mine dated Goheen.

These are not nearly old enough though.
But one gets into the question of the definition of vulnerability.
e.g. it was well known that one could disable the 7094 FMS supervisor's
job time limit counter and accounting by storing zero in a certain
location in core.  (No, I'm not going to say which one on an open  
channel.)
That was a vulnerability in a system with no memory protection where
only one job was running at a time, circa 1962.

A little later, there was a documented bug in CTSS where programs
that increased their memory allocation size would get non-zeroed core.
So a programmer in the system group wrote a little program to start
small, get big, scan its new memory for passwords.  Quickly got root,
that is, Dick Mills's password.  This would be 1965 or so.

You folks have looked at Donn Parker's book, right, and you are looking
for things earlier than his earliest?



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