[pups] User Mode DoS Attacks (was Re: Issues of AUUGN)

[Milo Velimirovic]

> But you'd need kernel mode for that; this is a DoS attack (one of the
> first?) launched by a user.

The userland DoS I remember:

main() {
	while(1)
		fork();
}

And in fact I tried it once on the 11/45 I had access to. Not pretty.  
It can be made less disastrous by judicious addition of a wait(); call.

--Milo, wondering how contemporary UNIX will deal with such  
pathological behavior....

--
Milo Velimirović
University of Wisconsin - La Crosse
La Crosse, Wisconsin 54601 USA
43 48 48 N 91 13 53 W
--
There's a reason Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson have been awarded  
the U.S. National Medal of Technology (1998) and are fellows of the  
Computer History Museum Online. Dave Cutler hasn't and isn't.
"You are not expected to understand this."