Subject: Re: Pentium bug halts system
From: [email-masked] (Paul Prescod)

17 Nov 1997 01:26:44 -0800
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
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To: "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>

Paul Shirley wrote:
> 
> In message <[email-masked]>, Jeremiah
> Gowdy <[email-masked]> 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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