[HECnet] Security hole in CSWS

[Sampsa Laine]

Just to clarify, are we now talking about the flaw in CSWS_PHP or just general syntax for VMS filenames? Or both?

Sampsa

On 22 Sep 2009, at 22:25, Mark Abene wrote:

For the record, both [] and <> will work on TOPS-20 for directory names.
Brackets [] are naturally preferable because they don't require a shift,
which is much more comfortable when typing quickly.


Johnny Billquist wrote:
Mark Wickens wrote:
Hope you guys don't mind but I mentioned this to the Hoff and he pointed
out that a period '.' can be used validly instead of a ';' as a
separator between the version number and the filename.

Indeed. You can also use <> instead of [] as directory brackets.
All because of confusion within DEC at the time when they tried to
decide on a standard for all DEC OSes.
(Because of this confusion, TOPS-20 changed it's syntax to be <> and .,
but then VMS reverted the decision, but in the end they had to allow
both variants, to keep something like compatibility between VMS and
TOPS-20. RSX also allows the same.)

    Johnny