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Re: DJB's students release 44 *nix software vulnerability advisories



Steven M. Christey wrote:

In addition to modeling the level of authentication needed, I've been
thinking that it might also be important to note how much user/victim
participation is required for activation of the exploit, i.e. whether
the issue can be automatically exploited by normal user activity
(e.g. by simply reading an email message) or whether there's some
social engineering involved.  However, I haven't put much thought into
terminology for this besides:

 - automatic: exploit is automatically activated as a result of
   normal usage of the product
I call this class "worms", or more grammatically a class of remote vulnerabilities subject to worm attack. where the malware can propagate unassisted.

 - complicit: requires some victim participation or inaction
I call this class "viruses, same grammar hack as above. These require the victim to click on something, or such like, before the malware can propagate.

 - opportunistic: can not really control when, or if, the victim
   activates the exploit
I'm having a hard time seeing the difference between "complicit" and "opportunistic".

Crispin

--
Crispin Cowan, Ph.D.  http://immunix.com/~crispin/
CTO, Immunix          http://immunix.com