At 3:48 PM -0400 on 9/3/99, Matt Blaze wrote:
> Since anyone
> with a debugger and a copy of an MS OS can find this symbol, if this is
> intended as some kind of covert mechanism, it's not very well hidden.
Though, truth be told, the symbols were supposedly *accidently* left
in on this one build.
Which brings me to my crazy "policy page" theory of all this.
When, finally, people looked inside the Netscape *executable*, and
saw that just-as-you-please plaintext crypto "policy" page, something
anybody with a clue and good text editor could go in and change,
turning their crippleware to actual crypto (I mean, even *I* went and
did it for chrissakes, and it worked), the folks at Netscape said,
and I think this is a direct quote, "It took you long enough." The
thing must have been in there for years, I bet.
Anyway, I don't know why I *don't* believe the same thing about
Microsoft (okay, maybe I do, only that's a theological reason :-)),
but, right now, I just can't believe that they really did this thing
so that people could fix their own crippleware, just like Netscape
did with their policy page.
Unfortunately, I think that all this *was* a mistake on their part,
and, of course, there are just that many more neurons firing outside
the Microsoft firewall than in it. A classic argument for open source
and peer review, of course, but, paradoxically, one which, in the
end, *helps* Microsoft to be more devious about their trapdoors in
the future.
I'd love to be proven wrong on this, and if someone on the other side
of that Redmond firewall wants to actually speak up on this, cool,
but I bet this is more about failed skullduggery than any
crypto-beneficence on BillG's part.
Cheers,
RAH
-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
