[vox-tech] xhost+: Why you should NEVER DO THAT

[Richard Harke]

On Friday 18 March 2005 16:12, Karsten M. Self wrote:
> The history of secure applications development is largely divided into
> two groups:
>
>  1. Those who anticipate hostile environments, design for scenarios in
>     which no two components trust one another, and correctly implement
>     failsafe, trust, integrity, and encryption procedures.
>
>  2. Those who've been the source of multiple compromises.
>
>
> Paranoia pays off here.  Safe practices pay off.  Even those who _are_
> paranoid and cautious suffer breakins (the good ones will let you know
> that this has happened).  The truely frightening are those who deny the
> problem exists _and_ fail to recongize a compromise when they see it.
>
When I first installed firefox it refused to run. After googling about I found
the advice to do xhost +. Based on this thread I should have rejected the 
advice leaving me with two alternatives:

1:   download the firefox source and debug it.

2:   apt-get purge firefox  (followed by a nasty email to somewhere)

Richard Harke