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Date:      Sun, 17 May 2020 00:33:50 -0600
From:      "@lbutlr" <kremels@kreme.com>
To:        FreeBSD <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: [FreeBSD-Announce] FreeBSD 12.0 end-of-life
Message-ID:  <2161E572-945A-44EC-9E70-35DA3552E8BD@kreme.com>
In-Reply-To: <20200516215437.4802660c.freebsd@edvax.de>
References:  <20200217231452.717FA1E820@freefall.freebsd.org> <CAFYkXjmZi1-MB6W0HsMx9gHek7Xg5heoSKKWkNTnw74dxRTwAw@mail.gmail.com> <85E7C97E-EF8B-4FC7-8EF1-758B7BCBAE90@kreme.com> <05112EEC-7FA3-4E18-974B-263A58058E01@kicp.uchicago.edu> <332714B8-2798-42CF-A082-9EDA180CC65B@kreme.com> <20200516201923.8676289a.freebsd@edvax.de> <257EF587-92B5-4671-B6F4-89E86CC2ACA0@kreme.com> <20200516215437.4802660c.freebsd@edvax.de>

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On 16 May 2020, at 13:54, Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> wrote:
> On Sat, 16 May 2020 12:56:25 -0600, @lbutlr wrote:
>> Otherwise, old OSes are porous insecure botnets-in-wait with
>> dozens or hundreds or thousands of exploits.
>=20
> That is true, but is significant only as far as those systems
> interact with other things, especially over Internet.

If the computer is air-gapped, that is one thing. If the computer is on =
a network and that network is air gapped, that is something else. Oof =
that computer is on a network and any machines on that network have =
access to the Internet, then that old insecure machine should be assumed =
to be on the Internet.

Just look at the many exploits for non-Internet connected LAN printers.

> I just want to provide an example that "younger people" (TM)
> might find strange: In mainframe world, you can still compile
> and run programs written in a way to read data from a punched
> card reader and write data to a chain printer or a tape drive.
> There is no need to modify the source in order to run such a
> program on a current mainframe with a current OS. To a certain
> extent, you even have native binary compatibility.

And when you have old tools that allow you to, for example, load =
information off a tape, you have an attack vector that probably hasn=E2=80=
=99t been secure because it was written before we figured out that =
security was important (because people suck) and no one has gone back to =
look at how exploitable that code is on a modern system.



--=20
What we have here is a failure to communicate.





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