Not So REM_ote

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

Responding to msg by karlton@netscape.com (Phil Karlton) on 
Fri, 23 Feb  8:19 PM


>Marianne Mueller is a Sun employee, not a Netscape 
>employee. The  original quote did not make that clear.


Here's the full article. My snipping fed Alex's take, still, he 
got the right stink of Netscape's and Sun's deodorizing the 
loss of pucker, which might be sniffed of Phil Karlton's 
distancing from Marianne Mueller, eh, even though Jeff Truehaft 
is the true fart-waver.


----------


   Wall Street Journal, February 23, 1996, p. B3.


   Netscape Will Issue Fix for Flaw Found In Browser System


   Mountain View, Calif. - Netscape Communications Corp.
   confirmed that Princeton University researchers found a
   potential security flaw in Netscape's popular Internet
   browser technology, but said the flaw was minor and that
   the company will issue a software fix for it next week.

   Edward Felten, an assistant professor of computer science
   at Princeton, posted a report on the Internet earlier this
   week describing the flaw in Netscape's Navigator 2.0, a
   product that enables the use of programs created with Java,
   Sun Microsystems Inc.'s hot programming language for the
   Internet. Java can be used to create "applets," small
   applications such as spreadsheets, that can be downloaded
   from the Internet's World Wide Web.

   Both Netscape's Navigator and Sun's Java have defenses
   designed to prevent Java applets from connecting with any
   computers except the ones they are summoned to by users and
   the ones they came from. But the Princeton team found a way
   to defeat those defenses, meaning that applets could
   theoretically be manuevered into other computers on a
   network. Applets aren't viruses, but in theory, they could
   be used to peruse confidential documents or other
   information.

   In trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, Netscape fell $1.875
   to $62, while Sun Microsystems jumped 7.8% to $51.875, up
   $3.75.

   Netscape product manager Jeff Treuhaft said exploiting the
   flaw would require extremely skilled hacking and many other
   unlikely advantages, such as intimate familiarity with the
   network being hacked.

   Marianne Mueller, a top Java security engineer, also said
   the chances of such hacking occurring are "remote," but
   said Sun also soon will issue a software fix that will plug
   the possible security leak.

   [End]