Trusting the Tools - was Re: Open Source ...

Bill Frantz frantz at pwpconsult.com
Thu Oct 9 22:45:01 EDT 2003


At 8:18 AM -0700 10/7/03, Rich Salz wrote:
>Are you validating the toolchain?  (See Ken Thompson's
>Turing Aware lecture on trusting trust).

With KeyKOS, we used the argument that since the assembler we were using
was written and distributed before we designed KeyKOS, it was not feasible
to include code to subvert KeyKOS.  How do people feel about this form of
argument?

Cheers - Bill


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Bill Frantz        | "There's nothing so clear as a | Periwinkle
(408)356-8506      | vague idea you haven't written | 16345 Englewood Ave
www.pwpconsult.com | down yet." -- Dean Tribble     | Los Gatos, CA 95032


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