From:	papresco AT technologist DOT com (Paul Prescod)
Subject:	Re: Pentium bug halts system
17 Nov 1997 01:26:44 -0800 :
Message-ID:	<34700B7B.7F060ED8.cygnus.gnu-win32@technologist.com>
References:	<jHOSwcA7rxb0EwEy AT foobar DOT co DOT uk>
Mime-Version:	1.0
To:	"gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com" <gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com>

Paul Shirley wrote:
> 
> In message <01bcf12e$d1f4c400$0c469acd AT jboehm DOT sdcoe DOT k12 DOT ca DOT us>, Jeremiah
> Gowdy <coldfusion1 AT geocities DOT com> writes
> >BUT, before people start to freak out, this CANNOT be used to crash people in
> >HTTP (world wide web protocol) FTP EMAIL/SMTP/POP3 IRC or anything else I can
> >think of except a protocol which can automatically copy a file onto your hard
> >drive and then execute it.
> 
> Its called ActiveX.
> A major component of Active Desktop amongst other things.

Please don't raise the Active-X boogey-man. New Active-X controls do not
get installed and run without user permission. The point Jeremiah makes
is a good one -- average users are not at risk from this bug. Only ISPs
and others who allow foreign code to run are at risk. If someone wants
to harm me through Active-X, exploiting the Pentium bug is one of the
least harmful of the things they can do (as Jeremiah pointed out!).

 Paul Prescod
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