How to crash an operating system...

[Dennis McMurchy <denismcm@example.com>]

  Hi all,

  Some of you will probably be interested in this info on system 
vulnerability (a posting on the Provence Linux User's Group list drew
my attention to it):

The ping o'death page : " How to crash your operating system "
http://www.sophist.demon.co.uk/ping/

  A brief excerpt follows (this is a big page):

	In a nutshell, it is possible to crash, reboot or otherwise kill
	a large number of systems by sending a ping of a certain size
	from a remote machine. This is a serious problem, mainly because
	this can be reproduced very easily, and from a remote machine.
	(During tests, my machine in London, England has been crashed
	from a machine in Berkely, California), and because the attacker
	needs to know nothing about the machine other than its IP
	address. Be afraid. Since I started this page on the 21st
	October, over 18 major operating systems have been found
	vulnerable.    

  The plug-lister was able to crash a Linux 2.0.22 kernel, but not
a 2.0.26 kernel (which is apparently the most recent).

  Beautiful fall weather down here in Kyushu kundari.

Dennis McMurchy, 
Tojinmachi, Fukuoka



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