Dutch - Scientist | 1951 -
Lack of documentation is becoming a problem for acceptance.
Wietse Venema
AcceptanceProblemDocumentationLack
At the time the Sendmail program had a very poor reputation with respect to security, with four root vulnerabilities per year for two successive years.
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One bug in an SMTP server can open up the whole machine for intrusion.
OpenUpWholeBugMachineServer
The challenge with Postfix, or with any piece of software, is to update software without introducing problems.
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This will surprise some of your readers, but my primary interest is not with computer security. I am primarily interested in writing software that works as intended.
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Defect-free software does not exist.
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As of today, the Postfix mail transport agent has almost 50,000 lines of code, comments not included.
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However, writing software without defects is not sufficient. In my experience, it is at least as difficult to write software that is safe - that is, software that behaves reasonably under adverse conditions.
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Writing software that's safe even in the presence of bugs makes the challenge even more interesting.
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When I write software, I know that it will fail, either due to my own mistake, or due to some other cause.
MistakeComputersKnowWillMy Own
In a previous life I wrote the software that controlled my physics experiments. That software had to deal with all kinds of possible failures in equipment. That is probably where I learned to rely on multiple safety nets inside and around my systems.
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Coming back to the topic of computer security, the TCP Wrapper is an example of such a safety net. I wrote it when my systems were under attack by someone who appeared to walk through walls.
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