From: papresco@technologist.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: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: "gnu-win32@cygnus.com" Paul Shirley wrote: > > In message <01bcf12e$d1f4c400$0c469acd@jboehm.sdcoe.k12.ca.us>, Jeremiah > Gowdy 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 - For help on using this list (especially unsubscribing), send a message to "gnu-win32-request@cygnus.com" with one line of text: "help".