Re: [slug-chat] Challenge with Free Software

[David Kempe <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Monday 09 April 2001 15:11, invisible ink wrote:
> How on earth can you keep a system like this even remotely secure? It's the
> same trouble network games have, from what I've heard.

I was involved with quakeworld in trying to make it secure just after they 
released the source. It was a very interesting challenge. However, the 
"blessed binary" system that they implemented was eventually the thing we 
stuck with. There doesn't seem to be any other way. Games are alot trickier 
than an XML web based app tho. High security authentication is possible even 
with the source (biometric, secureid). Games however convey much more data, 
most of it useless, however the odd chunk of data can be the difference 
between winning and dieing.

For an explanation of blessed binarys, you can read the FAQ from the people 
who we found it off: www.netrek.org

I dunno where on netrek the explanation is, but they have been using blessed 
binarys for ages. They have some servers called "RSA" in line with this.

yer,

Dave