Responding to msg by karlton@netscape.com (Phil Karlton) on Fri, 23 Feb 8:19 PM
Marianne Mueller is a Sun employee, not a Netscape employee. The original quote did not make that clear.
Here's the full article. My snipping fed Alex's take, still, he got the right stink of Netscape's and Sun's deodorizing the loss of pucker, which might be sniffed of Phil Karlton's distancing from Marianne Mueller, eh, even though Jeff Truehaft is the true fart-waver. ---------- Wall Street Journal, February 23, 1996, p. B3. Netscape Will Issue Fix for Flaw Found In Browser System Mountain View, Calif. - Netscape Communications Corp. confirmed that Princeton University researchers found a potential security flaw in Netscape's popular Internet browser technology, but said the flaw was minor and that the company will issue a software fix for it next week. Edward Felten, an assistant professor of computer science at Princeton, posted a report on the Internet earlier this week describing the flaw in Netscape's Navigator 2.0, a product that enables the use of programs created with Java, Sun Microsystems Inc.'s hot programming language for the Internet. Java can be used to create "applets," small applications such as spreadsheets, that can be downloaded from the Internet's World Wide Web. Both Netscape's Navigator and Sun's Java have defenses designed to prevent Java applets from connecting with any computers except the ones they are summoned to by users and the ones they came from. But the Princeton team found a way to defeat those defenses, meaning that applets could theoretically be manuevered into other computers on a network. Applets aren't viruses, but in theory, they could be used to peruse confidential documents or other information. In trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, Netscape fell $1.875 to $62, while Sun Microsystems jumped 7.8% to $51.875, up $3.75. Netscape product manager Jeff Treuhaft said exploiting the flaw would require extremely skilled hacking and many other unlikely advantages, such as intimate familiarity with the network being hacked. Marianne Mueller, a top Java security engineer, also said the chances of such hacking occurring are "remote," but said Sun also soon will issue a software fix that will plug the possible security leak. [End]