[Info-vax] VMS - Virtual Terminals - A security risk way back yonder OR was that an Old Wives Tale ?

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2016-02-11 06:36, IanD wrote:
> I was using windows remote desktop today and was thinking of how easy and quite responsive it is and for some things, how good it is to leave things in a certain state and come back later
>
> We use jumphosts etc a lot as an indirect path to attend to a lot of the servers we need to get to
>
> Anyhow, I got to thinking about how in one place I worked, we had VMS virtual terminals but that after a few months, they were taken away and when-ever anyone enquired about there reinstatement, the security trump card was pulled out and the system manager 'dealer' always won that conversation / deal
>
> It was a long time ago, I won't say how long other than a couple of 'decades' (spoken in a low mumble and inaudible voice)
>
> It got me thinking, was that an old wives tale back then (probably VMS version 5 ??? can't remember to be honest) or were there really issues with virtual terminals and people connecting in and getting onto someone else's disconnected session? (that was the excuse used to curtail virtual terminals)
>
> Or was it possibly the fact that virtual terminals let people stay logged in, chewing up precious resources back then? (I know people cannot say if THIS was the actual reason for the place where I worked obviously, I'm more interested in what may have been the general consensus on virtual terminal use back about version 5 of VMS and/or if anyone knew of actual valid security reasons for them being frowned upon so much). the attitude against their use I encountered at more than one site actually
>
> Was it most likely an old wives tale back then or was there some merit to curtailing their use

Are you talking about some application that allowed you to keep sessions 
around, similar to screen and other tools in Unix today?

Because otherwise I don't understand your text. Virtual terminals exists 
in VMS. They are devices. I believe subsystems like BATCH depends on 
them existing for things to work, so I have a hard time believing that 
you are talking about the virtual terminal device... Or that it was 
"removed".

	Johnny

-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
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