-=> Quoting Scott Hoffman to Rick Collins <=-
-=> FidoMail to 1:163/215, please.-=<
sh> or on UNIX you can have a mail program that runs "scripts". 
rc> And _only_ if the software is _intended_ to so that, Scott. You
rc> are postulating a "virus" contained in an E-mail that  reason> any program designed to display and process text will
rc> execute. 
SH> And you confirmed my comment in your very first line..  "IF the
SH> software was  intended to do that".
Yes, in relation to running scripts and the like.  Note that the
"scripts" are external to the text being read.  You are talking about
a reader that attempts to execute _the email itself_ - not some
external program.  What I was saying was the reader would have to be
programmed to attempt to execute the text it was reading - and none
does, nor is one likely to do so.  Why not?  Beacuse it's stupid.
sh> software doesnt exist or may not exist yet \has ABSOLUTELY
sh> NOTHING to do with the question on whether something is
sh> possible or not. 
Sure.  I suppose someone _could_ write an e-mail reader that would
read the mail and at the same time, attempt to execute what was
there.  It could even be programmed to "trigger" on a certain
character sequence and at that point start allocating memory and
everything else that has to be done to run a program.  It's possible. 
But the _probability_ approaches zero.  It's also _possible_ that
there's an alien spacecraft trailing Hale-Bopp.  Do you think it's
something one should be concerned with?
sh> And I'm simply saying that lets say for example, some wiseguy
sh> 'hacker' decides it funny to create an e-mail program for UNIX
sh> or whatnot, it becomes popular, but the software has some built
sh> in features that most people dont know about, the ability to
sh> execute programs And the hacker may have done this
sh> intentionally, ... or heck.. maybe it was just a security glitch
sh> or programming error or whatnot that never got fixed, so I dont
sh> ever believ in saying "NEVER" and so I'll never degrade myself
sh> to that position. 
It couldn't be a "security glitch" because it would require purposful
activity to create such a chunk of code.  It could be done (on the
basis that anything's possible - no matter how improbable) but it
hasn't been done, and isn't likely to be done.
TTFN. Rick.
Ottawa, ON 13 Apr 12:11 
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