Postscript is very similar. Early PS printers had full fledged
computer capabilities ...
Very soon, the security issues of having a networked computer that
anyone could send executable code to led to the PS interpreters
being locked down, with all the fun stuff removed.
On Mon, 27 Jul 2026 17:44:21 -0400, Cryptoengineer wrote:
Postscript is very similar. Early PS printers had full fledged
computer capabilities ...
?Early? or not, if they implemented PostScript, then by definition
they had ?full-fledged computer capabilities?.
Very soon, the security issues of having a networked computer that
anyone could send executable code to led to the PS interpreters
being locked down, with all the fun stuff removed.
That would be PDF, not PostScript.
On 8/22/2026 9:47 PM, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
That would be PDF, not PostScript.
It was both. Early on PS programs could open network connections
and send stuff to other systems, as well as manipulate file systems.
On 8/22/2026 9:47 PM, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
On Mon, 27 Jul 2026 17:44:21 -0400, Cryptoengineer wrote:
Postscript is very similar. Early PS printers had full fledged
computer capabilities ...
?Early? or not, if they implemented PostScript, then by definition
they had ?full-fledged computer capabilities?.
Very soon, the security issues of having a networked computer that
anyone could send executable code to led to the PS interpreters
being locked down, with all the fun stuff removed.
That would be PDF, not PostScript.
It was both.
Early on PS programs could open network connections and send stuff
to other systems, as well as manipulate file systems.
Check this out:
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-00470-5_28
PostScript Undead: Pwning the Web with a 35 Years Old Language.
I hand wrote some PS programs back in the day.
On Sun, 23 Aug 2026 13:11:04 -0400, Cryptoengineer wrote:definition
On 8/22/2026 9:47 PM, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
On Mon, 27 Jul 2026 17:44:21 -0400, Cryptoengineer wrote:
Postscript is very similar. Early PS printers had full fledged
computer capabilities ...
?Early? or not, if they implemented PostScript, then by
they had ?full-fledged computer capabilities?.
Very soon, the security issues of having a networked computer that
anyone could send executable code to led to the PS interpreters
being locked down, with all the fun stuff removed.
That would be PDF, not PostScript.
It was both.
PDF was designed so that pages could be sent directly to a PostScript
printer for rendering, by prefixing them with a suitable custom
prologue. The basic syntax was PostScript-compatible, after all.
Early on PS programs could open network connections and send stuff
to other systems, as well as manipulate file systems.
I don?t recall Apple LaserWriters, or any of the other printers I
used, having any ability to make network connections to other
machines. Some PostScript printers/typesetters may have had/needed
access to local filesystems, but I don?t see why they needed network >capabilities in the language itself.
Check this out:
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-00470-5_28
PostScript Undead: Pwning the Web with a 35 Years Old Language.
So what is happening there? Are those sites running Ghostscript at
their backends in a form accessible from the wider Internet with
insufficient containment?
I hand wrote some PS programs back in the day.
I did a bunch. Even after I quit my former employer, they called me
back for a few years afterwards to help generate a few thousand
preprinted enrolment forms from individual student data for use at the
start of the academic year.
I was asked more than once to train one of their own staff to take
over, but it seemed none of the candidates could cope with
reverse-Polish notation ...
On Sun, 23 Aug 2026 13:11:04 -0400, Cryptoengineer wrote:
I hand wrote some PS programs back in the day.
I did a bunch. Even after I quit my former employer, they called me
back for a few years afterwards to help generate a few thousand
preprinted enrolment forms from individual student data for use at the
start of the academic year.
I was asked more than once to train one of their own staff to take
over, but it seemed none of the candidates could cope with
reverse-Polish notation ...
On Wed, 26 Aug 2026 06:51:05 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:I appears I am mis-remembering.
On Sun, 23 Aug 2026 13:11:04 -0400, Cryptoengineer wrote:
On 8/22/2026 9:47 PM, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
On Mon, 27 Jul 2026 17:44:21 -0400, Cryptoengineer wrote:
Postscript is very similar. Early PS printers had full fledged
computer capabilities ...
?Early? or not, if they implemented PostScript, then by definition
they had ?full-fledged computer capabilities?.
Very soon, the security issues of having a networked computer that
anyone could send executable code to led to the PS interpreters
being locked down, with all the fun stuff removed.
That would be PDF, not PostScript.
It was both.
PDF was designed so that pages could be sent directly to a PostScript
printer for rendering, by prefixing them with a suitable custom
prologue. The basic syntax was PostScript-compatible, after all.
Early on PS programs could open network connections and send stuff
to other systems, as well as manipulate file systems.
I don?t recall Apple LaserWriters, or any of the other printers I
used, having any ability to make network connections to other
machines. Some PostScript printers/typesetters may have had/needed
access to local filesystems, but I don?t see why they needed network
capabilities in the language itself.
Check this out:
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-00470-5_28
PostScript Undead: Pwning the Web with a 35 Years Old Language.
So what is happening there? Are those sites running Ghostscript at
their backends in a form accessible from the wider Internet with
insufficient containment?
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