Notices by MWL Book Quote Bot (quotebot@io.mwl.io)

Yes, some network administrators claim that ICMP is a security risk and unconditionally block it from entering or leaving their network. They are almost always wrong. ICMP is a security risk in the same way opening ports 80 and 443 to your web server is a risk. -- Networking for System Administrators, 2nd ed

Internet of Things or no, I will never permit my comfy chair to have an IP address. --DNSSEC Mastery, 2nd edition

ASN.1 was successful enough that the International Telecommunications Unions felt no need to create ASN.2. Everyone capitulatd in terror of what the ITU might do next. --SNMP Mastery

Sysadmin Rule #5: "Cleverness" is directly proportional to "fragility."

Properly written setuid programs are not risky. That's why real setuid programs are risky.

Ed is UTF-8 compliant, of course. While it can handle emoji, doing so imperils your immortal soul almost as much as using nano.

If you want a picture of the future of IT, imagine blocking TCP/IP ports and reinventing them. Forever. --TLS Mastery

If you must use MySQL, try MariaDB instead. It's MySQL, but untainted by Oracle. Other commercial MySQL variants also exist, if you need a support contract that doesn't involve phrases like "immortal soul" or "first-born child." --SNMP Mastery

Sysadmin Rule #5: "Cleverness" is directly proportional to "fragility."

I'm sorry.

I'm fine with inexpensive, but I detest cheap.

Why is there no safeguard against shooting yourself in the foot like this? Well, Unix feels that anyone dumb enough to do this doesn't deserve to be its friend. Various people keep trying to put Unix in therapy for this type of antisocial behavior, but it just isn't interested.

No software is innocent. But no single piece of software has committed all crimes -- except for Emacs, of course.

Network administrators of all backgrounds share one underlying, overwhelming desire. It doesn’t matter if you manage a network with 400 separate manufacturing plants connected by a global MPLS mesh or if you’re responsible for three computers and an elderly printer. Network administrators all share an abiding and passionate desire for just one thing: We want our users to shut up.

For those readers too young to remember: Windows 95 had no security system.

Most of this nonexportable software is available from non-US sources and can be downloaded anywhere in the world. Meanwhile, ex-KGB cryptographers without these regulations will happily provide strong crypto to anyone at low, low rates. Mind you, they charge extra for crypto without obvious backdoors.

The vital thing here is to save Bill's email, so that when he complains about the error I can show him it's his own fault.

I'm sorry.

Remove /dev/null from a host and a surprising number of programs crash and burn. Experienced sysadmins understand that most software requires an uninterruptible supply of nothing.

Real Unix ships with ifconfig. And ed.