[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       firewalls-gc
Subject:    Re: Virus Scanner
From:       Ian Miller <firewalls () scientia ! com>
Date:       1997-07-29 12:05:47
[Download RAW message or body]

At 11:44 28/07/97 -0400, Paul Ferguson wrote:
>I would argue that encrypted traffic
>is no less susceptible to contain virus-infected data (executable
>attachments or any other transmittable virus) than unencrypted
>traffic.
>
Not quite.  There is one danger that encryption _does_ provide protection
from.  That is infection in transit.  Whereas I do not believe this has yet
been done, it would be possible for a virus to infect files in MIME
attachments in the mail queue.  This is a rather exotic type of virus, but
it would spread extremely fast if there were any number of mail servers that
were vulnerable to infection.  

Whereas I agree that encrypted traffic is currently only marginally less
susceptible to infection, the emergence of virii designed to infect messages
in transit could change this suddenly and radically.

Ian

[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]