Re: Packet length: header vs. context

pgut001@cs.auckland.ac.nz (Peter Gutmann) Mon, 08 January 2007 04:52 UTC

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From: pgut001@cs.auckland.ac.nz
To: iang@systemics.com, jon@callas.org
Subject: Re: Packet length: header vs. context
Cc: ietf-openpgp@imc.org, lpb@ece.cmu.edu
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Jon Callas <jon@callas.org> writes:
>On Jan 6, 2007, at 6:09 AM, Ian G wrote:
>> The GNU world characterised this as "be precise in what you send,
>> be liberal in what you read."  That is, be accomodating when
>> finding input.  In this context the answer to the above question is
>> "accept the key."
>
>Postel said that, actually, long before there was any GNU except those one
>might find in a zoo.

And before Jon Postel said that, the MIT hackers said "Look for anything that
says 'Don't to X', then try as many variations of X as possible.  "Postel's
Law" is great for interoperability, terrible for security.

Peter.