[WikiEN-l] Re: new CheckUser proposal up

Thu Oct 13 17:56:33 UTC 2005

On 13/10/05, Phil Boswell <phil.boswell at gmail.com> wrote:
> "Anthony DiPierro" <wikispam at inbox.org> wrote:
> [snip]
> >  If sysadmins can do any destructive thing they want, then you haven't
> > created a very secure system.
>
>
> Pick the most secure version of UNIX you can find.
>
> Log in as root.
>
> Invoke the following:
> $ rm -r /
>
> How destructive do you actually want?
>
> (I recall hearing a story of how somebody did this and, having interrupted
> the process mid-destroy, managed with the help of some friends to resurrect
> the system because he happened to have a copy of EMACS running (i.e. loaded
> into memory and not susceptible to instant deletion) and was therefore able
> to type in various vital system files by reading the hex off another
> terminal. I wish I could back it up with a URL, but it's the end of my work
> day here, and I'm going home :-)

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.folklore.computers/msg/7746ec4c7cd47ffd
(or Message-ID:<_n7z!pk at rpi.edu>) sounds like what you mean, I think.

I believe the technical term is *shudder*...

--
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk