Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site wu1.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!cmcl2!rocky2!cubsvax!wu1!rf
From: rf@wu1.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.mail.headers
Subject: Re: SMTP and authentication
Message-ID: <259@wu1.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 9-Mar-84 13:11:01 EST
Article-I.D.: wu1.259
Posted: Fri Mar  9 13:11:01 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 11-Mar-84 00:25:59 EST
References: <384@hou3c.UUCP>
Organization: Western Union Telegraph, Mahwah, NJ
Lines: 20

John (RSX-DEV@DEC-MARLBORO.ARPA) writes:

  A TWX or Telex can be hacked just as easily as netmail!  All
  it takes is changing the answerback.

Nonsense!  Both Telex I and Telex II (TWX) are connected to the
Western Union switches via dedicated lines.  When you dial a
terminal through the Telex net, you may request its answerback
code, thereby assuring that the message went to a terminal with
the appropriate answerback connected to the appropriate ports on
the Telex net.  To forge a Telex one must either change the
terminal address in the Western Union switches (which takes
about a week) or physically fiddle with the telephone lines
which connect Telex terminals.  This is far more difficult than
forging a Uucpnet message.


				Randolph Fritz
				Western Union Telegraph
				{philabs, allegra!sunrise}!wu1!rf