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" Like all software, Qmail can survive only when it keeps up with changing requirements. "
Wietse Venema
Only
Survive
Changing
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" One bug in an SMTP server can open up the whole machine for intrusion. "
Wietse Venema
Bug
Whole
Up
" When I write software, I know that it will fail, either due to my own mistake, or due to some other cause. "
Wietse Venema
Know
Own
My Own
" Writing software that's safe even in the presence of bugs makes the challenge even more interesting. "
Wietse Venema
Interesting
Safe
Writing
" Adding functionality is not just a matter of adding code. "
Wietse Venema
Matter
Code
Just
" Most of the effort in the software business goes into the maintenance of code that already exists. "
Wietse Venema
Software
Maintenance
Effort
" Defect-free software does not exist. "
Wietse Venema
Exist
Does
Software
" This will surprise some of your readers, but my primary interest is not with computer security. I am primarily interested in writing software that works as intended. "
Wietse Venema
Writing
Security
I Am
" At the time the Sendmail program had a very poor reputation with respect to security, with four root vulnerabilities per year for two successive years. "
Wietse Venema
Two
Security
Respect
" Qmail out of the box works fine, so people will want to use it regardless of licensing restrictions, even when the software does not ship with their system software. "
Wietse Venema
Want
Will
People
" The Postfix security model is based on keeping software simple and stupid. "
Wietse Venema
Security
Stupid
Simple
" I want to avoid locking people into solutions that work only with Postfix. People should have a choice in what software they want to use with Postfix, be it anti-virus or otherwise. "
Wietse Venema
Work
Choice
Want
" I don't expect an overnight change of all desktops to what the US Military used to call B3 level security. And even that would not stop users from shooting themselves into the foot. "
Wietse Venema
Change
Expect
Stop
" However, writing software without defects is not sufficient. In my experience, it is at least as difficult to write software that is safe - that is, software that behaves reasonably under adverse conditions. "
Wietse Venema
Experience
Software
Writing
" Coming back to the topic of computer security, the TCP Wrapper is an example of such a safety net. I wrote it when my systems were under attack by someone who appeared to walk through walls. "
Wietse Venema
Walk
Back
Security
" In a previous life I wrote the software that controlled my physics experiments. That software had to deal with all kinds of possible failures in equipment. That is probably where I learned to rely on multiple safety nets inside and around my systems. "
Wietse Venema
Inside
Safety
Possible
" Postfix keeps running even if one Postfix process dies; Windows requires that someone restarts the service. "
Wietse Venema
Someone
Process
Windows
" I was going to visit IBM for six months as a visiting scientist. Now, six months is a lot of time, so I came with a whole list of projects that I might want to work on. "
Wietse Venema
Time
Going
Now
" The challenge with Postfix, or with any piece of software, is to update software without introducing problems. "
Wietse Venema
Challenge
Problems
Without
" Windows favors multi-threading, which means that a service is implemented by one single process. "
Wietse Venema
Service
Process
Single
" Lack of documentation is becoming a problem for acceptance. "
Wietse Venema
Documentation
Lack
Problem
" For many people my software is something that you install and forget. I like to keep it that way. "
Wietse Venema
Way
Forget
You
" As of today, the Postfix mail transport agent has almost 50,000 lines of code, comments not included. "
Wietse Venema
Mail
Today
Lines