Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: A reason not to release new movei in the next month

Author: Uri Blass

Date: 03:15:59 06/30/04

Go up one level in this thread


On June 29, 2004 at 18:23:10, Dann Corbit wrote:

>On June 29, 2004 at 15:13:07, Uri Blass wrote:
>
>>On June 29, 2004 at 14:22:48, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>
>>>On June 28, 2004 at 20:59:09, Angrim wrote:
>>>
>>>>On June 28, 2004 at 20:37:00, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On June 28, 2004 at 19:50:19, Peter Berger wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>But I am really quite sure that potential crashes of your movei chess program
>>>>>>don't fall into this category for various reasons. I can imagine an attack
>>>>>>against Movei running on a chessserver - but how is this threat going to be
>>>>>>worked on to threaten someone's computer?
>>>>>
>>>>>Very simple.  Write a rogue engine that sends the overrun to any opponent named
>>>>>"movei*"
>>>>
>>>>no chess server that I have used has the option for one player to
>>>>send an arbitrary string of character to the oponent and pretend that
>>>>it is a chessboard.
>>>
>>>Have you actually examined all the source code for FICS?
>>>How about the source code for ChessMaster online?
>>>And for all the other online chess systems?
>>>
>>>The chances for an exploit are not high.  But if one does exist, then the damage
>>>could be tremendous.  It is not difficult to code defensively, and it is a very
>>>good habit to cultivate.
>>>
>>>> Which is what your suggestion would require.
>>>>Now a chess server coder could possibly add such an attack, assuming
>>>>that your interface program didn't do any sanity checking, but that
>>>>is taking paranoia pretty far.
>>>
>>>There are literally thousands of virus and worm attacks.  Some nitwits seem to
>>>spend all their waking hours looking for, and finding, exploits.  I am guessing
>>>that one could be found if enough effort were put into it.  Would you like to be
>>>responsible for a literal billion dollars in damage when 15 minutes of code
>>>review could have totally prevented it?
>>
>>I still consider if to put movei back in Leo's page
>>
>>The question is also what is the probability that viruses will use some free
>>engine when they probably can use some commercial engine that is used by more
>>people.
>
>Since a large number of people have already downloaded it, putting it back is
>probably not of any real impact.  There probably is an exploit, if array
>overwrites are possible, but it is not likely that someone will bother writing
>one.  Of course, it could happen, but it is not an imminient danger from a
>probability standpoint.  Exploits are far more likely to occur with programs
>where millions of people have them already.  I think a logical course is to give
>Leo a new one when you have added corrections that prevent simple attacks.  In
>the meantime, whether you take it down or leave it up is up to you.

I decided that I let Leo to put movei back on his site and I sent him an email
about it.

Uri



This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.