Re: "Local" and "Remote" considered insufficient

[Ejovi Nuwere <ejovi@ejovi.net>]

Steve,

To summarize a vurnerability in one line is always difficult, more so 
when you are writting in a language other then your native tongue. Your 
ideas might help eleviate some of those troubles but not the core, in 
addition to language issues, most security researchers are simply poor 
writers. All of the complexities you detailed are very real, that is why 
there needs to be a simplified terminology.

While Local and Remote alone are clearly not enough, Local, Remote, 
Remote Level 1, Remote Beta and Remote Delta will not help either.

The idea of Local, Remote, and Remote Authenticated sounds nice and I 
would love to see more researchers adhere to this phrasing or something 
similar to the risk catagories vurnerability scanners use. Low, Medium 
and High, three classifications, then let the end user sort them out.

Now only if we knew someone at MITRE that could make this happen...

ejovi

> So, to echo Florian's comments, "local" and "remote" is not sufficient
> in fully evaluating the severity of a vulnerability in a particular
> environment.
>
> - Steve
>
> P.S.  Credits to Adam Shostack and Scott Blake for initially educating
> me about the role of authentication in "local" vs. "remote"
> terminology.