Re: ~/.hosts patch

From: Marcin Jessa <lists_at_yazzy.org>
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 10:07:59 +0200
On Wed, 21 Jun 2006 07:31:23 +0000
John Birrell <jb_at_what-creek.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Jun 21, 2006 at 12:20:36AM -0700, Luigi Rizzo wrote:
> > On Wed, Jun 21, 2006 at 07:07:39AM +0000, John Birrell wrote:
> > > The fact that a lot of innocent (naive) people don't use https
> > > and certificates?!
> > 
> > and so they would happily click on
> > 
> > 	<a href="http://www.666.org/gimmeyourmoney">Secure Link to
> > Your Bank</a>
> > 
> > so we are not opening much in terms of security holes...
> 
> You are making it worse because you open a new security hole:
> 
> <a href="https://www.paypal.com/">www.paypal.com</a>
> 
> does not take them to the _REAL_ www.paypal.com.
> 
> This is not an issue about phishing where:
> 
> <a href="http://some.dynamic.ip.addr/">www.paypal.com</a>
> 
> makes it look like the link takes them to PayPal when it really
> doesn't.
> 
> Most banks still don't use certificates even though they use HTTP.
> 
> We need to retain the integrity of a DNS lookup. If there are any work
> arounds required for poor DNS lookups, then let an administrator
> configure them!

Just add a global switch to enable/disable using of the ~/.hosts file
to i.e /etc/login.conf.
I personally find this feature very handy, especially on a desktop
with restricted access to the system. 

Marcin.
Received on Wed Jun 21 2006 - 06:07:20 UTC

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