> Do they exist? Speaking for mainframes: in the sense that the word 'virus' usually applies to Windows/Unix based PC's, no. For one thing, there is no concept of 'buffer overflow' in mainframe-land.
But in the sense that a program can purposefully or inadvertently cause harm, that's true with any machine that can be programmed. Usually (always?), mainframe installations are well protected from this happening through programs like RACF which lords over resources and who gets to access what, and the protection of inner-workings of the OS by the concept of authorized libraries and access to 'supervisor state', which is restricted to very few trusted people and applications. Related to this, all memory is protected by 'keys', so an application program which typically runs in key 8 cannot change key 0 (supervisor) memory. Bill > -- > @~@ http://changmw.homeip.net > / v \ May the Force and Farce be with you! Linux 2.6.23.1 > /( _ )\ (Xubuntu 7.04) 18:25:01 up 10 days 20:51 > ^ ^ 2 users load average: 0.10 0.04 0.04 _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: ProFox@leafe.com Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
