INFO-VAX Mon, 11 Aug 2008 Volume 2008 : Issue 437 Contents: Re: Another BIND vulnerability (cache poisoning) Re: CD written on Alpha won't mount on Integrity DVD ROM Re: CD written on Alpha won't mount on Integrity DVD ROM Re: DEFCON 16 and Hacking OpenVMS Re: HP buys EDS Re: OpenVMS in the media - National Grid Control Centre, Britain from Above, 10/ Re: OpenVMS in the media - National Grid Control Centre, Britain from Above, 10/ Re: OpenVMS in the media - National Grid Control Centre, Britain from Above, 10/ Re: OpenVMS in the media - National Grid Control Centre, Britain from Above, 10/ Re: SSH Re: Who chopped my lines! Re: Who chopped my lines! Re: Who chopped my lines! Re: Who chopped my lines! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 02:11:43 -0700 (PDT) From: Keith Cayemberg Subject: Re: Another BIND vulnerability (cache poisoning) Message-ID: On Jul 9, 5:36 am, JF Mezei wrote: > Slashdot article:http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/08/195225 > > Offfical CERT article:http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/800113 > > The CERT announcement only goes by company name, and there is no status > from HP. At least Microsoft has quickly acklnowledged that its virus > collection software known as Windows is vulnerable. > > Alpha VMS hjas Bind 9. VAX-VMS is Bond 8, but then HP has never > acknowledged/provided any "vulnerable/not-vulnerable status for the many > BIND-8 issues over the years. For those sites using OpenVMS as a "Name Server" in addition to the BIND Resolver capability of HP TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS, there are now patches available for BINDS's architectural design problem resulting in a DNS cache poisoning vulnerability in this "network level" service. Please review the information at the following URL... http://h71000.www7.hp.com/network/new.html Cheers! Keith Cayemberg ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:35:17 -0700 (PDT) From: etmsreec@yahoo.co.uk Subject: Re: CD written on Alpha won't mount on Integrity DVD ROM Message-ID: <1f70282c-dabc-41d0-b795-06b84470f942@c58g2000hsc.googlegroups.com> On 8 Aug, 09:41, baldrick wrote: > Jose Baars wrote: > > We had to do the same : write CD's on Alpha and read them > > on Itanium ( rx2620 not sure about the exact DVD drive). > > > If you are on 8.3 you can use copy/recordable_media lda1 dqa0: > > > This has varying results as the Itanium DVD drives are apparently much > > pickier than any others, resulting sometimes in read errors on > > CD's that are perfectly readable on Alpha. If you use the wrong > > brand or lot you always get errors. > > > I used a CD -RW and this worked fine, maybe because of a different > > kind > > of on-disk tracks or whatever. > > > My guess is you ran in to similar problems, I would try a few other > > brands or types > > of =A0media. > > Ah now this is the sort of data I seek, what media are you using (brand) > ? If you have a CDINFO tool on a Wintel drive what does it tell you > about the media? I may try a different media (I have some TDK) and try > using the COPY/RECORDABLE rather than my home grown. I'll see if I have > a CDRW disc too... > > Nic. > > -- > nclews at csc dot com aka Mr. CP Charges > "The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour > to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly > ignores the fact that it was he who, by peddling second-rate technology, > led them into it in the first place."- DNA- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - Be interesting to see what it does on other Integrities too - some of them present the DVD drive as DNA0: whereas others appear to use the SCSI driver (is there a SCSI translator board on the back?) and present the drive as DKxy: ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 07:52:13 -0400 From: "News" Subject: Re: CD written on Alpha won't mount on Integrity DVD ROM Message-ID: A couple of things the DVD in the blade enclosure is not directly connected to any of the blades. It is connected to the enclosure manager and controlled by that software. VMS sees it as a virtual CD/DVD so when the O.S. talks to it. We manufacture a SCSI command send it out over the USB bus. Then a a custom ASIC in the management processor takes the USB command and put it on the network. The enclosure manager get the network packet and passes it to an application that eventually passes and IDE command to the device. Having said that it all works for reading. There is a bug in the V8.3 driver fixed in V8.3-1h1 where we report the disk size at 4x larger than it really is. This results in a information when the disk mounts but it mounts and works in all the testing done to date. We have seen lots of issues with the drives being incerdible sensitive to media. To the point where one out 3 burned DVD's would not be readable. Take the same media to adifferent machine and they would work fine. Media type and if they were burned -r instead of +r caused the most problems. Forrest ------------------------------ Date: 11 Aug 2008 06:40:37 -0500 From: clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP (Simon Clubley) Subject: Re: DEFCON 16 and Hacking OpenVMS Message-ID: In article <00a990b4$0$20308$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com>, Mark Daniel writes: > http://www.defcon.org/html/defcon-16/dc-16-speakers.html#Oberg > > is due to be presented this Sunday, Aug 10th 2008 > Does anyone know what happened with this ? Thanks, Simon. -- Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP Microsoft: Bringing you 1980's technology to a 21st century world ------------------------------ Date: 11 Aug 2008 07:42:57 -0500 From: koehler@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) Subject: Re: HP buys EDS Message-ID: In article <6g8jpiFen8kbU1@mid.individual.net>, billg999@cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) writes: > I offer as an example a case quite some time ago of a company paid to > create a simulator for the F16. In the testing phase a someone climbed > into the cockpit, hit the raise landing gear switch and watched the > simulator crash on the the simulated surface. Of course, everyone > immediately argued that this was a major bug, until they found out that > performing the same action in a real F16 had the same result!! Thankfully, > they they fixed both of them. Failure to review lessons learned. During the Korean War, the F86 had the same bug. Which cost cutter left out the squat switch? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:47:08 -0700 (PDT) From: etmsreec@yahoo.co.uk Subject: Re: OpenVMS in the media - National Grid Control Centre, Britain from Above, 10/ Message-ID: <3649ba2f-0fc6-4bf0-9fc1-8165a204d990@c65g2000hsa.googlegroups.com> On 11 Aug, 00:36, johnwalla...@yahoo.co.uk wrote: > On Aug 10, 11:04 pm, urbancamo wrote: > > > > > > > Spotted an LK201 and an LK401 at the console of the controller at the > > National Grid Control Centre in the programme 'Britain From Above' > > broadcast on BBC1 in the UK on 10/08/08. > > > The National Grid Control Centre is responsible for providing the UK's > > electricity supply. The programme focussed on the unique problem in > > the UK of supplying the peak demands of power required after > > mainstream TV programmes such as East Enders. The controller had > > direct influence at an instant over several hydroelectric power plants > > dotted round the UK that are solely used for providing temporary extra > > power to satisfy peak demand. The controller monitored a display > > showing the mains frequency which required action when it dropped to > > 49.8 Hz - the normal in the UK being 50 Hz. > > > I found it absolutely fascinating that hydroelectric dams are opened > > temporarily because East Enders has finished and a large portion of > > the UK public are making a brew! > > > OpenVMS was not mentioned in the programme but it can be assumed that > > it is used in some major capacity at the control centre. > > > Can anyone provide more details? > > > Regards, > > > Mark. > > If you look up "pumped storage" in the usual places you will find some > fascinating (well, to me) information.www.fhc.co.ukdescribes a > couple of such stations in picturesque North Wales and is worth a > visit either via the web or preferably for real. The Dinorwig station > has a visitor centre (with, last time I was there, a very impressive > cafe), the station itself is open to the public and you can take a > tour. Last time I tried was on an unplanned visit, and tours were > fully booked for the next two hours, so as I had places to be, I had > lunch and moved on. It's also in a very scenic part of the world, if > you like that kind of thing; the bottom of the Snowdon Mountain > Railway is a few yards from the visitor centre and if you're into real > engineering, that's also worth a look. > > That First Hydro website goes into a bit more detail (than the > programme presumably did) about the technical aspects and the process > of balancing electricity supply and demand via "the market" (look up > "New Electricity Trading Arrangements" or NETA for more info than you > could ever want). > > There used to be lots of VMS, and a bit of Tru64 Unix, in the regional > electricity companies (the people who actually supply to end users) as > well as in Gridco (featured tonight) and in the larger power stations > too. I don't know if there still is as I'm no longer involved with > that kind of thing. > > Also in days gone by, the biggest demand surge in the year used to be > at 3oclock on Christmas Day, when the Queen's Christmas broadcast came > on. Or was it at ten past, when she came off and the kettles went on. > Anyway, multichannel TV and other factors mean that's no longer such a > big event. You can find "live" figures for demand now, last 24 hours, > and last 8 days athttp://www.nationalgrid.com/uk/Electricity/Data/Realtime/Demand/Deman... > > Dinorwig and the like were planned, designed and built by engineers in > the days when there was a legal (as well as common-sense) obligation > to keep the lights on, before the accountants and management > consultants and contract lawyers took over UK plc. Now the matching of > electricity supply and demand is a matter for the market, which is why > there's been little money spent on power stations in the UK, at least > since the ridiculously ill-advised post-privatisation "dash for > gas" [1]. Yes, let's make our electricity from gas, it's great for > short-term profits (and CCGT isn't bad for thermal efficiency either). > While we're at it we can close the coal industry, so when North Sea > gas predictably runs out in a decade or two, we'll become dependent on > gas imports from our good friends in Russians, Libya, Iran, etc for > our electricity as well as for our gas! Also while we're at it, let's > sell our essential generating and distribution companies to the former > nationalised utilities in the rest of the world (France, Germany and > Spain spring to mind), so they and not Government can decide where the > gas or oil goes if there should happen to be a bit of a shortage one > day. > > Marvellous stuff, technology. > > [1]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3581637.stm- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - The thing I love about the pump storage scheme at Dinorwig is that the CEGB assumed that they could close the railway in order to build the station. Unfortunately for them, since the railway was opened by act of Parliament, it could only be closed by act of Parliament. Since there were objections to it being closed, the CEGB were forced to pay for modifications to the line so that their little power station scheme didn't close the little railway that they wanted to cut in half! Steve ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 01:04:20 -0700 (PDT) From: dooleys@snowy.net.au Subject: Re: OpenVMS in the media - National Grid Control Centre, Britain from Above, 10/ Message-ID: On Aug 11, 1:49=A0pm, JF Mezei wrote: > johnwalla...@yahoo.co.uk wrote: > > Also in days gone by, the biggest demand surge in the year used to be > > at 3oclock on Christmas Day, when the Queen's Christmas broadcast came > > on. > > Interesting. When I visited the Snowy River hydro project in Australia, > I was told the peak demand there was in the morning during summer when > people get up, start brewing coffee AND air conditioners start to work > because of the sun having risen and starting to heat homes. > > Here in Qu=E9bec, the peak is during very cold winter days at about 18:00 > when people get home turn on lights, raise their thermostats and start > cooking meals. > > I suspect there are variations throughout the world on when peak demand > exists. JF - you should have called in to see our vms machines Phil ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 01:25:34 -0700 (PDT) From: dooleys@snowy.net.au Subject: Re: OpenVMS in the media - National Grid Control Centre, Britain from Above, 10/ Message-ID: <5e9f2c5a-09e8-4c03-9803-72462cfaab8e@w1g2000prk.googlegroups.com> On Aug 11, 8:04=A0am, urbancamo wrote: > Spotted an LK201 and an LK401 at the console of the controller at the > National Grid Control Centre in the programme 'Britain From Above' > broadcast on BBC1 in the UK on 10/08/08. > > The National Grid Control Centre is responsible for providing the UK's > electricity supply. The programme focussed on the unique problem in > the UK of supplying the peak demands of power required after > mainstream TV programmes such as East Enders. The controller had > direct influence at an instant over several hydroelectric power plants > dotted round the UK that are solely used for providing temporary extra > power to satisfy peak demand. The controller monitored a display > showing the mains frequency which required action when it dropped to > 49.8 Hz - the normal in the UK being 50 Hz. > > I found it absolutely fascinating that hydroelectric dams are opened > temporarily because East Enders has finished and a large portion of > the UK public are making a brew! > > OpenVMS was not mentioned in the programme but it can be assumed that > it is used in some major capacity at the control centre. > > Can anyone provide more details? > > Regards, > > Mark. (in .au) frequency is handled by scada systems managing generator output with control pulses sent every 0.5 sec If you really want to know more have a look at http://www.nemmco.com.au/powersystemops/powersystemops.html#as I think one of the biggest historical peaks was during the 1966 world cup final when it went to extra time the whole country made a cup of tea. Phil Phil ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:40:04 +0200 From: "P. Sture" Subject: Re: OpenVMS in the media - National Grid Control Centre, Britain from Above, 10/ Message-ID: In article <5e9f2c5a-09e8-4c03-9803-72462cfaab8e@w1g2000prk.googlegroups.com>, dooleys@snowy.net.au wrote: > On Aug 11, 8:04 am, urbancamo wrote: > > Spotted an LK201 and an LK401 at the console of the controller at the > > National Grid Control Centre in the programme 'Britain From Above' > > broadcast on BBC1 in the UK on 10/08/08. > > > > The National Grid Control Centre is responsible for providing the UK's > > electricity supply. The programme focussed on the unique problem in > > the UK of supplying the peak demands of power required after > > mainstream TV programmes such as East Enders. The controller had > > direct influence at an instant over several hydroelectric power plants > > dotted round the UK that are solely used for providing temporary extra > > power to satisfy peak demand. The controller monitored a display > > showing the mains frequency which required action when it dropped to > > 49.8 Hz - the normal in the UK being 50 Hz. > > > > I found it absolutely fascinating that hydroelectric dams are opened > > temporarily because East Enders has finished and a large portion of > > the UK public are making a brew! > > > > OpenVMS was not mentioned in the programme but it can be assumed that > > it is used in some major capacity at the control centre. > > > > Can anyone provide more details? > > > > Regards, > > > > Mark. > > (in .au) frequency is handled by scada systems managing generator > output with control pulses sent every 0.5 sec > If you really want to know more have a look at > http://www.nemmco.com.au/powersystemops/powersystemops.html#as > > I think one of the biggest historical peaks was during the 1966 world > cup final when it went to extra time the whole country made a cup of > tea. I also recall a water board spokesman giving statistics about the 1966 world cup final. Not so much the filling of kettles, but the simultaneous flushing of toilets at 2 gallons a time causing reservoir levels to dip, and sewage plants to receive a surge. To stay on topic, does anyone know if Yorkshire Water are still a heavy VMS user? DEC Leeds used to mention them frequently in the VAX to Alpha migration timeframe. -- Paul Sture ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:48:45 GMT From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Jan-Erik_S=F6derholm?= Subject: Re: SSH Message-ID: Jan-Erik Söderholm wrote: > Jan-Erik Söderholm wrote: > >> Steven M. Schweda wrote: >>> From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Jan-Erik_S=F6derholm?= >>> >>> >>>> Just setup SSH on my system. VMS 8.2, TCPIP 5.6 >>>> >>>> Using "Reflection for UNIX and VMS" >>>> version 14.0 on the client (Win-XP). >>>> >>>> One session is just fine, but when I open a new >>>> reflection Windows and try to login, both >>>> sessions are logged off. >>> >>> What happens if you use some other SSH client (like, say, SSH on the >>> VMS system or on some handy UNIX-like system)? Does the fault lie with >>> the VMS SSH server or with the Reflection client? >>> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >>> >>> Steven M. Schweda sms@antinode-info >>> 382 South Warwick Street (+1) 651-699-9818 >>> Saint Paul MN 55105-2547 >> >> >> I enabled SSH Client also. >> >> Then made some "SSH localhost" to create new >> SSH sessions localy, and *that* worked at least... >> >> But as sson as as tried to create a second >> Relfection session, they all "died". Reflection >> says "". >> >> Tomorrow I'll try with the Putty emulator which I >> think also supports SSH. > > Just tried with PuTTY. *It* can open multiple SSH sessions > to my 8.2 VMS system. No problem. Reflections still > terminates the first session when the second is started, > ends up with both sesions terminated. The PyTTY sessions > are uneffected and are still connected and logged in. > > The SSH log files still have : > > > Thu 07 23:02:30 ERROR: FATAL ERROR: GETPTY ast_pending:1 > > dsa10:[sys0.syscommon.][sysexe]tcpip$ssh_sshd2.exe[38229]: > > FATAL: GETPTY ast_pending:1 > > %TCPIP-F-SSH_FATAL, non-specific fatal error condition > > Well, I'm lost, I guess. I'll try to see if it's > possible to find some mail address to Attachemate... > > Jan-Erik. OK, problem solved. Got a mail from the Attachemate support suggesting to un-check the "reuse existing connection if available" in the SSH config of Reflection. I guess that this has something to do with not having to make the SSH login a second time for the second (and later) session(s). Anyway, un-checking this made the second session login just fine. I also guess that PuTTY doesn't use (or support ?) session re-use at all, since it "worked" with PuTTY per default. According to Attachemate support, if you're running a 100% openSSH implementation, session reuse *usualy* works. No big deal, one can just as well run with this disabled. Jan-Erik. ------------------------------ Date: 11 Aug 2008 06:29:31 -0500 From: clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP (Simon Clubley) Subject: Re: Who chopped my lines! Message-ID: <68z$duuhfZCt@eisner.encompasserve.org> In article , helbig@astro.multiCLOTHESvax.de (Phillip Helbig---remove CLOTHES to reply) writes: > > Actually, I suppose the sender is more likely. > No, the problem is on the receiver side. I see the same problem with variable length log files mailed from a Linux system. When the length of a record is over 255 bytes, the line is split into multiple records within the .MAI file. For example, the following two records are one line on the Linux system: (I've deleted the record contents for security reasons.) Record number 31 (0000001F), 255 (00FF) bytes, RFA(0006,0000,0100) [contents deleted] Record number 32 (00000020), 74 (004A) bytes, RFA(0007,0000,0002) [contents deleted] A test seems to show that same node VMS-to-VMS mail is ok. I created a single record 500 bytes long, which survived been mailed to myself, so it appears to be the UCX SMTP receiver. (Which, based on my experiences with that code, is not exactly a major surprise.) > How do newer versions of TCPIP do? I'll know that in a few weeks - I have an upgrade cycle planned. :-) Simon. -- Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP Microsoft: Bringing you 1980's technology to a 21st century world ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:11:38 +0000 (UTC) From: helbig@astro.multiCLOTHESvax.de (Phillip Helbig---remove CLOTHES to reply) Subject: Re: Who chopped my lines! Message-ID: In article <489f4424$0$5410$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com>, JF Mezei writes: > VMSmail, character cell, will only output the first 256 characters of a > line. They will wrap around a few lines. The rest of a line is in the > mail file but not displayed. OK, but should be in the file if I EXTRACT it. > VMSmail will truncate lines greater than 256 characters when transported > via DECnet. No DECnet involved. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:18:00 +0000 (UTC) From: helbig@astro.multiCLOTHESvax.de (Phillip Helbig---remove CLOTHES to reply) Subject: Re: Who chopped my lines! Message-ID: In article <489fb8cc$0$1827$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com>, JF Mezei writes: > To Mr Helbig, I suggest you get the exact filename containing a specific > email message and use TPU to edit the file to look at it and move the > window to the right. There is nothing missing. Rather, lines longer than 255 are cut into multiple lines, i.e. a newline is inserted, all of which (except perhaps the last) are 255 characters long. > If the message content is intact, then you know that it gets truncated > by the VMSmail client, and that the SMTP transport and the sender are OK. This doesn't show conclusively whether sender or receiver, though. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:18:47 +0000 (UTC) From: helbig@astro.multiCLOTHESvax.de (Phillip Helbig---remove CLOTHES to reply) Subject: Re: Who chopped my lines! Message-ID: In article <68z$duuhfZCt@eisner.encompasserve.org>, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP (Simon Clubley) writes: > No, the problem is on the receiver side. > A test seems to show that same node VMS-to-VMS mail is ok. I created a > single record 500 bytes long, which survived been mailed to myself, so it > appears to be the UCX SMTP receiver. (Which, based on my experiences with > that code, is not exactly a major surprise.) That's my conclusion as well. ------------------------------ End of INFO-VAX 2008.437 ************************