Slashdotters debate this submission: “Alan Cox released 2.2.20pre10 today, which includes security fixes. He is refusing to indicate what security holes have been fixed, as Unix-style permissions could be used as an anti-circumvention device.”

LOS ANGELES, CA October 22, 2001 – ActiveState, the leader in open source programming tools, today at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2001, announced the release of Visual XSLT for Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. Visual XSLT?s one-of-a-kind XSLT debugger synchronizes input and code while debugging in real time. The rich development environment of this plug-in also allows programmers to leverage the knowledge they already have with Microsoft Visual Studio .NET and use Visual XSLT?s step-by-step view of the XML transformation to ensure robust, quality code.
?XSLT enables programmers to build complex transformations for mission critical applications. These transformations are the backbone of many sophisticated systems for Microsoft products and in the IT industry in general,? said Dick Hardt, Founder & CEO, ActiveState. ?When our customers have an XML transformation problem, we want to help them be as productive as possible and Visual XSLT provides the solution by ensuring that their code operates as expected.?

Key Features:

XSLT Editor with IntelliSense – syntax checking and coloring, auto-indenting, code completion, and more

XSLT Debugger – synchronized debugging and input breakpoint setting

Output Preview – results of transformations appear in browser automatically, giving quick feedback

Visual XSLT also displays XSLT variables and parameters and allows programmers to enter arbitrary XPath expressions in the debugger Watch window while debugging.

?Visual XSLT is a very useful tool for Visual Studio .NET developers. The strategy of ‘value by reference’ and being able to see a Visual XSLT project as a view of live data will make it much easier for developers to work with XML,” said Robert Green, lead product manager for Visual Studio .NET at Microsoft Corp. “Visual XSLT is well integrated into Visual Studio .NET. The Output window shows transformed XML as it’s being created and the Watch window shows the values of XSL variables. This type of deep integration is very helpful and exciting.”

“Visual XSLT from ActiveState is without a doubt the most cutting-edge XSLT IDE to date. It integrates directly with Visual Studio .NET and provides developers with everything they expect from a high-productivity environment like syntax highlighting, IntelliSense, and most importantly, debugging. Visual XSLT makes debugging XSLT files a breeze by allowing you to step through templates, inspect the input tree, and watch the output tree as it’s generated,” said Aaron Skonnard, Instructor and Author, Developmentor. “In the end, if you’re tired of writing XSLT code in notepad or emacs, you’ll want to add Visual XSLT to your development environment.”

?In XSLT processes, the data flow is usually more interesting than the code sequence,? said Eric Promislow, Visual Project Lead, ActiveState. ?By giving programmers full access to the data flow, including input breakpoints, Visual XSLT changes the way programmers will work with XSLT by enabling them to quickly develop reliable XML transformations.?

Visual XSLT is $295. For a limited time, PDC attendees may take advantage of a special offer of $195. Educational licenses are also available.

About XSLT:
XSLT or EXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation is an-up-and-coming programming language that transforms XML documents. It also does much more. XSLT is most commonly used for generating HTML documents, extracting information from an XML document, and translating between vocabularies in B2B applications. Most people using XML also use XSLT. Because XSLT it is a powerful language that allows complex transformations of XML dialects, it offers many possibilities for XML document manipulation, the most obvious of which is Web page generation.

About ActiveState:
ActiveState is the leading provider of open source based programming products and services for cross-platform development. ActiveState’s key technologies are Perl, the Internet’s most popular programming language; Python and Tcl, user-friendly scripting languages; PHP, the dynamic Web programming language; and XSLT, the XML transformation language. The ActiveState Programmer Network (ASPN) offers these technologies with the latest information and productivity tools, empowering programmers with the freedom to work with their preferred language and development environment.

Media & Analyst Contacts:
Lori Pike, ActiveState

“OpenLinux Workstation 3.1 is the latest release of Caldera’s
Linux-based desktop operating system. In what appears to be
a shift in focus from its user-centric eDesktop 2.4, Caldera
seems to be targeting its workstation distribution directly at the
developer market by adding a wide variety of development
tools to its already solid desktop configuration, making this
latest version well-suited for corporate in-house
development.” From ZDNet.

LinuxPR: “theKompany.com is pleased to announce the 0.6 release of Rekall, a personal,
programmable DBMS system for KDE. The objective of this release is to be feature
complete prior to the conversion to Qt from KDE. We have also added an integrated
debugger to the Python as well as fixing bugs. Our current timeline has a 1.0 release
available in late November 2001.”

Mozilla.org: “The 2.14 release went relatively smoothly, after some last minute bu … err hitches were encountered on bugzilla.mozilla.org. This site,
for those that don’t know, was the original installation of Bugzilla and is the “shakedown” site for the CVS code when there are no
known non-documentation release blockers.

Inevitably release blockers are found when this occurs, and there were blockers for 2.14 just as there were for 2.12. However, the actual
release process went relatively smoothly this time around.”

The Register: “This Wednesday (24 October), the second transitional period of the Data Protection
Act takes effect in the UK, meaning that companies are required by law to provide
all the personal data they store on anyone, if that person requests it.

This has far-reaching implications for all UK businesses but more significantly (from
our perspective anyway) it means all UK Web sites, Web sites with servers based in
the UK, and companies that have cookies or Web bugs on UK Web sites will have
to review their approach if they are not to fall foul of the new law.”

“Telecommunications carrier Optus today said it had completed moving its cable
broadband Internet service across to the Optusnet network… mail systems were housed on a pair of Sun servers while part
of the Excite@Home network. They now have been migrated to a cluster of 22
redundant, load-balanced Linux servers.
Two Sun servers handing DNS services for the Excite@Home network also has been
replaced by arrays of Linux boxes linked to a load balancer in both Sydney and
Melbourne.” Story at Fairfax IT.

The Register: “Anti-spam legislation is about to go through another round of voting tonight in
Strasbourg as the Committee on Citizens’ Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home
Affairs tries to adopt a new report with amendments.

We don’t want to get into the whole involved mess but basically what you need to
know is that the Telecoms Data Protection Directive (which includes the laws on
spam) is in the fifth stage (first reading) of seven before it becomes EU law.”

“Takeshi Uno found a very stupid format string vulnerability in all
versions of nvi (in both, the plain and the multilingualized version).
When a filename is saved, it ought to get displayed on the screen.
The routine handling this didn’t escape format strings.” Read the complete message below.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Debian Security Advisory DSA 085-1                     security@debian.orghttp://www.debian.org/security/                             Martin Schulze
October 20th, 2001
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Package        : nvi, nvi-m17n
Vulnerability  : Format string vulnerability
Problem-Type   : local privileges
Debian-specific: no

Takeshi Uno found a very stupid format string vulnerability in all
versions of nvi (in both, the plain and the multilingualized version).
When a filename is saved, it ought to get displayed on the screen.
The routine handling this didn't escape format strings.

This problem has been fixed in version 1.79-16a.1 for nvi and
1.79+19991117-2.3 for nvi-m17n for the stable Debian GNU/Linux 2.2.

Even if we don't believe that this could lead into somebody gaining
access of another users account if he hasn't lost his brain, we
recommend that you upgrade your nvi packages.

wget url
        will fetch the file for you
dpkg -i file.deb
        will install the referenced file.

If you are using the apt-get package manager, use the line for
sources.list as given below:

apt-get update
        will update the internal database
apt-get upgrade
        will install corrected packages

You may use an automated update by adding the resources from the
footer to the proper configuration.


Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 alias potato
- ------------------------------------

  Source archives:

    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/source/nvi-m17n_1.79+19991117-2.3.diff.gz
      MD5 checksum: 5caafefd0e95caf98ac810ce81b867e5
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/source/nvi-m17n_1.79+19991117-2.3.dsc
      MD5 checksum: 3ba5331137886031cb04ea3eca69036b
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/source/nvi-m17n_1.79+19991117.orig.tar.gz
      MD5 checksum: 558f19e47019f39f7334a7d44390859f
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/source/nvi_1.79-16a.1.diff.gz
      MD5 checksum: 651167ab8dc7137d202a2d308e5fba47
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/source/nvi_1.79-16a.1.dsc
      MD5 checksum: 7c0c3931159fd85e0e0a7486072916da
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/source/nvi_1.79.orig.tar.gz
      MD5 checksum: 0270bbfed66bacb94ddaf0e6f39bd9d1

  Architecture independent components:

    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-all/nvi-m17n-common_1.79+19991117-2.3_all.deb
      MD5 checksum: 1e429f9d8e55b3ed2ed2d87b2ab003a1

  Alpha architecture:

    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-alpha/nvi-m17n-canna_1.79+19991117-2.3_alpha.deb
      MD5 checksum: b4e627008a2bf9f0a0f229e95faabf31
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-alpha/nvi-m17n_1.79+19991117-2.3_alpha.deb
      MD5 checksum: 454d43da5b3d6a23a97c5144aa748489
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-alpha/nvi_1.79-16a.1_alpha.deb
      MD5 checksum: 76bc2f9da9fbb204ba52c63496bf9747

  ARM architecture:

    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-arm/nvi-m17n-canna_1.79+19991117-2.3_arm.deb
      MD5 checksum: 567b4d76f3290ec0a69773abc64032a4
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-arm/nvi-m17n_1.79+19991117-2.3_arm.deb
      MD5 checksum: dea3a3f6a4f48cdfff46c1e786fe4a65
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-arm/nvi_1.79-16a.1_arm.deb
      MD5 checksum: 321eef2c56f5c51f2676bbf3c5d593e5

  Intel ia32 architecture:

    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-i386/nvi-m17n-canna_1.79+19991117-2.3_i386.deb
      MD5 checksum: c8bd0ea8e2581e2f18b2990c5434ab35
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-i386/nvi-m17n_1.79+19991117-2.3_i386.deb
      MD5 checksum: 93235c24ff0efac3b3636664c30b8c6e
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-i386/nvi_1.79-16a.1_i386.deb
      MD5 checksum: 0b04432bb3c62661cafe89b6353ff768

  Motorola 680x0 architecture:

    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-m68k/nvi-m17n-canna_1.79+19991117-2.3_m68k.deb
      MD5 checksum: bb78e9d2f130b67b23496600590314f5
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-m68k/nvi-m17n_1.79+19991117-2.3_m68k.deb
      MD5 checksum: b49f71f6bb2422a876a582846336e256
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-m68k/nvi_1.79-16a.1_m68k.deb
      MD5 checksum: 9943c19f919f66b9b477af5cceba093d

  PowerPC architecture:

    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-powerpc/nvi-m17n-canna_1.79+19991117-2.3_powerpc.deb
      MD5 checksum: 945c6355ebf61bef1d863d2b03dc6e4c
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-powerpc/nvi-m17n_1.79+19991117-2.3_powerpc.deb
      MD5 checksum: eade84420b9d7170f702099f60d67395
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-powerpc/nvi_1.79-16a.1_powerpc.deb
      MD5 checksum: 665927fb038464cbb279f8575cfaca07

  Sun Sparc architecture:

    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-sparc/nvi-m17n-canna_1.79+19991117-2.3_sparc.deb
      MD5 checksum: ad214f82ec19cfc46f9e85aa8fa6a700
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-sparc/nvi-m17n_1.79+19991117-2.3_sparc.deb
      MD5 checksum: 8ee035057a46ca046d9700320cf52638
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-sparc/nvi_1.79-16a.1_sparc.deb
      MD5 checksum: 6720390c4fa00057b6c8e3ee8ad45286


  These files will be moved into the stable distribution on its next
  revision.

- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For apt-get: deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main
For dpkg-ftp: ftp://security.debian.org/debian-security dists/stable/updates/main
Mailing list: debian-security-announce@lists.debian.org
Package info: `apt-cache show ' and http://packages.debian.org/

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org

iD8DBQE70tO3W5ql+IAeqTIRAjYuAJ496JQ80VXz/v11yQnvnST1jJyucACfdE5r
qXiX7/cts+tApcR3kKbIzpc=
=EQPg
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

H2O writes “REBOL is a very powerful interpreted language and platform, which focuses in allowing the programmer to write Internet applications extremely easy (eg. a newsreader in under 15 KB of source code and an IM app for 7 KB, all in full GUI). Now Rebol Tech introduces the (also free) Rebol/IOS, which is a layer on top of existing OSes (the platform have been ported to 44 platforms (!), including Linux of course) and it is going to play the role that Microsoft wants to play with .NET. But the difference is that Rebol’s applications are only some KB large and can run even through very slow modems (in contrast to .Net’s apps) and that the technology is here *today* (not at Ballmer’s bedtime dreams). The Rebol founder, Carl Sassenrath, gives a detailed interview at OSNews explaining how they are going to compete with Microsoft etc.”