trusting code

At 01:12 PM 11/23/98 +0000, Frank O'Dwyer wrote:

Vlad Stesin wrote:

...

I don't quite understand the logic behind this. The fact that the program's source is available is itself a proof that there are no backdoors. Anyone can read the source code and make sure it's OK.

Anyone can, but does anyone?

Yes we do, but applied skeptics also consider the problem is also trusting your compiler, and the rest of the OS (incl. memory manager, keyboard driver, the email program your PGP utility may plug into, BIOS, etc.) What version of Microsoft compilers will begin checking for Mozilla code and compiling 'differently'? See Ritchie's Turing award article on Trusting Trust...